I need the percentage of persons living in the United States that are
NOT professing Christians and do not attend church on a regular basis
(at least once a month).  I need this percentage as a national average
and for the mid-west United States as well.

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Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 20 Aug 2004 11:38 PDT

Dan --

Are you considering all Protestant and Catholic denominations? 
Mormons?  Greek Orthodox?  Russian Orthodox?  Or do you have a tighter
definition?

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 20 Aug 2004 11:52 PDT

Dan,

Can you clarify what type of information you need?

In the US, 76.5% of the adult population describes themselves as
"Christian".  Are you looking for statistics on the remaining 23.5% of
the population?

If so, what type of statistics are you after?  The non-Christians,
pretty much by definition, don't attend church, so I'm not sure what
your "once a month" attendance caveat is all about.

Any clarifications you can provide would be a big help.  Thanks.


pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by danoverholt-ga on 20 Aug 2004 12:21 PDT

Please allow me to re-work the question.

1) I need the percentage of persons living in the United States that
ARE professing Protestant or Catholic Christians.

2) Of those that profess to be Protestant or Catholic Christians, how
many attend church on a regular basis (at least once a month or more).

I need this percentage as a national average and for the mid-west
United States as well.

This may be of some use to you:

http://people-press.org/reports/print.php3?PageID=115

By specifing Catholic and Protestant you may be excluding several
large groups of Christians ie Mormons = the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints consider themselves a restoration church. Many
Baptist claim to trace their authority back to the original Apostles
and thus are not Protestants. If you include these obviously Christian
groups the 76.5% suggested by pafalfa may be low. Only about 10% of
the USA population attends a Christian Church service 12 or more times
per year = average once per month. Of that 10% attending regularly, at
least 99% are professing Christians. Perhaps 1% profess to be
Christians as they believe professing and attending is good for their
career. Another 1% are in many respects devout Christians, but they
believe Church attendece is unecessary or even undesirable.
 Sorry the 10% is a wild guess. Perhaps another 10% feel guilty about
rare attendece and/or have a good excuse, as they consider themselves
Christians and behave more or less like Christians even though they
rarely attend a Christian Church service. Perhaps 5% of the USA
population would profess to be Christions or not, depending on who
asked, and how they worded the question and their particular mood of
that day.   Neil

My guess is the numbers for the mid-west are the same as for the USA
as a whole including Alaska and Hawii.  Neil

At least once per month is deceptive as nearly everyone has missed
church for 5 consectitive Sundays at least once in their life, but
they could average more than 100 times per year in recent years.  
Neil

The absolute best place for this type of information is
http://www.barna.org  The Barna Group has been doing all kinds of
surveys and studies of religion in the US for decades. Go to the above
web address, then look at the "Barna by topic" pull down menu. There
you will find everything you are looking for. Three topics "Beliefs -
general religious", "Church attendance" and "Church demographics" are
directly related to your question.

I will also refer you to http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_basic.htm

This is the "basic religous data" portion of Religious Tolerance.org's
website. Below isa  list of the topics covered...where you will
definitely find what you are looking for.

World religious data: 
 Religious events and holy days by month, from the year 2000 to the present 
 Descriptions of the main world religions 
 Current numbers of members & rates of growth of various religions  
 Religious makeup of each country 
 Comparing growth rates of Christianity and Islam 
 How many people go regularly to church, mosque, synagogue, etc. 
 How important is religion in various countries? 
 Beliefs in the U.S. compared to other "Christian nations" 
 Center for Religious Freedom's book on religious freedom 
 Worldwide umbrella religious organizations
  
 Religious practices including: Attendance at religious services,  
 Divorce,  
 Exorcism,  
 Holy days,  
 Marriage,  
 Ordination of women,  
 Prayer,  
 Sex 
 Speaking in Tongues

church attendance does not make a Christian nor denomination (though
some have beliefs that will not qualify them as Christian.
We are commanded not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together
but this is for growth, bonding, edification (of each other. But it
does not make you a Christian. There is only one way to be a Christian
or better said to be saved.

Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

It is by grace through Faith (the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.)

Confess with you mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, believe that He is the
son of God. that he died for your sin and on the third day God raised
him fron the dead. And you will have secured you place in Heaven for
eternity. You have eternity from birth where you spend it is key will
it be heaven or hell.

Pray this Prayer:

?Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have
separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away
from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me
avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my
sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I
invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my
heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me
obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name
I pray, Amen.

If you sincerely said this prayer you are saved. This does not mean
you will not sin but you have the Spirit of God to guide you away from
those things that are sin and you can confess and be forgiven for any
short comings or missing the mark. Do not dwell on the sins of the
past for God remembers them not.

1Jo 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You are now the Righteouness of God in Christ. Your are not a sinner
saved by grace you are a child of God.

You mat have done what they say you did (sinned) but you are not who
they say you are (not a sinner).

Christianity is a lifestlye not a religion. When the HolySpirit is
active inside you it will create a will to be around people of like
Faith and you will be compelled to attend Church.

Just remember you can stand in a garage but it does not make you a car
the same hold you can stand in a church but it does not make you a
Christian.

Let me off this soap box before I try and say all that is on my heart
and wear my fingers out.

God Bless an Keep you all