Almost all the world’s religions are practiced today in the United States. The American tradition of religious tolerance and constitutional safeguards for freedom of worship has made religious life in the United States one of most diverse and vibrant in the world. In a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 78 percent of the more than 35,500 respondents classified themselves as Christian, 5 percent belonged to other faiths, and 16 percent were not affiliated with a specific religion. Members of evangelical Protestant churches constitute the largest religious group in the United States (26 percent of the population), followed by Catholics (24 percent) and mainline Protestants (18 percent).

Evangelical Protestants

Evangelical churches and religious groups have roots in the 18th-century Protestant revival movement, a period of heightened religious activity, especially in the United States and England. The Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey states that “churches within the evangelical Protestant tradition share certain religious beliefs (such as the conviction that personal acceptance of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation), practices (such as an emphasis on bringing other people to the faith), and origins (including separatist movements against established religious institutions).” Evangelicals emphasize personal religious experience, individual conversion, Bible study, the role of the laity in spreading the tenets of the faith and the need to practice faith-based morality in public life. The largest evangelical groups in the United States are evangelical Baptists, Pentecostals and nondenominational evangelicals.

Catholics

The United States has the third-largest Catholic population in the world (after Brazil and Mexico). Catholicism is the traditional religion of most Americans with Latino, Italian, Irish and Polish roots. The Landscape Survey states that “the Catholic share of the U.S. adult population has held fairly steady in recent decades, at around 25 percent.” Approximately one-third of survey respondents who were raised Catholic no longer practice that faith. These losses, however, have been offset partly by Catholic immigrants, particularly from Latin America. The church traces its origin to Jesus and the Twelve Apostles. It sees the bishops of the church as the successors of the apostles, and the pope in particular as the successor of St. Peter. The primary mission of the Catholic Church is to spread the message of Jesus Christ, found in the four Gospels of the Bible, and to administer church rituals called sacraments. Roman Catholicism today is the largest single church in the United States.

Mainline Protestants

The Landscape Survey, emphasizing the diversity of American Protestantism, describes churches in the mainline Protestant tradition as sharing “a less exclusionary view of salvation” than the evangelicals’ strict emphasis on personal acceptance of Jesus Christ. Mainline Protestant churches, which developed as a result of the 16th-century Reformation movement in Europe, have “long-established religious institutions” and place “a strong emphasis on social reform,” the survey said. The most numerous mainline Protestant churches in the United States are the Methodists, Lutherans, mainline Presbyterians and mainline Baptists. These churches tend to embrace the ecumenical position (belief in Christian unity) and often participate in interdenominational and interfaith organizations such as the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Approximately half (51 percent) of the members of U.S. mainline Protestant churches are age 50 or older.

Historically Black Churches

After slavery was abolished in the United States in the mid-19th century, African-American Christians started to establish their own churches to strengthen their communities, escape discrimination and worship in their own, culturally distinctive ways. Those churches quickly became the main social, cultural and political institutions of the African-American community. Black pastors and preachers, like Martin Luther King Jr. and others, played a prominent role during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Today, many historically black churches continue to combine religious and community functions and cultivate unique forms of worship and spiritual expression. The most numerous among the black Christian churches are black Baptists organized in the National Baptist Convention, USA, and black Methodists.

Jews

Although Jews have been settling in America since Colonial times, most came from Germany and Eastern Europe in the 19th century, bringing in diverse religious customs and forms of piety characteristic to those regions. Today, most American Jews follow the Reform stream of Judaism developed in the United States in the 19th century. Two other main streams of Judaism -- Conservative and Orthodox -- take, respectively, the second and the third place. More than 40 percent of American Jews live in the Northeast, although significant Jewish communities also exist in Florida, California and most large American urban centers.

Mormons

The Mormon Church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was founded in New York state in 1830. According to its founder, Joseph Smith, angel Moroni revealed golden tablets containing the Book of Mormon, which along with the Bible is the foundation of the Mormon faith. After Smith was assassinated by a mob in 1844, his closest associate, Brigham Young, took church members across the continent to Utah, which is still the main site of the Mormon community. As a result of active missionary efforts, the church has spread throughout the United States and abroad. Mormons make up about 61 percent of Utah’s population and 1.7 percent of the total U.S. population.

Buddhists

Americans first were exposed to Buddhism after the California Gold Rush, when large numbers of immigrants from China started arriving in the United States. The first Buddhist temple was built in San Francisco in 1853. Today, Buddhism remains the traditional religion of a large portion of Asian Americans but it also has developed a significant following among non-Asian converts. It has been studied by a number of American philosophers, writers and artists. Today, most American Buddhists still live in the West, especially along the West Coast, where several prominent American Buddhist schools and universities are located. Three-fourths of Buddhists in the United States are native-born; many are converts from other faiths. They constitute 0.7 percent of the population.

Muslims

The first Muslim in North America recorded by history is the early 16th-century Spanish explorer of Berber descent, Estevánico of Azamor. Historical records also show that many African slaves brought to America were probably Muslims. Over the last hundred years, the Muslim population of the United States has been growing steadily, as the result of immigration and conversions. An estimated one-third of American Muslims are African Americans who have converted to Islam, and most of the rest are immigrants. Muslims account for roughly 0.6 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to the Landscape Survey. The survey found that Sunnis make up half of the total, while the rest are Shiites and those who do not specify a denomination. Most American Muslims live in the South and in the Northeast.

Hindus

Prior to the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, Hindu immigration to the United States was difficult to estimate, but it probably was very limited. Today, Hindu communities exist throughout the United States, and numerous Hindu religious leaders live in or visit America. The first Hindu temple in North America was the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Penn Hills, a suburb of Pittsburgh, consecrated in 1976. It receives up to 100,000 pilgrims every year. Another prominent Hindu temple is Malibu Hindu Temple, built in 1981 near Malibu, California. Elements of Hindu lore have entered into mainstream American culture, as shown by the popularity of yoga, meditation and other techniques of self-awareness and self-improvement rooted in Hindu philosophy. Hindus are 0.4 percent of the U.S. population, and 86 percent are foreign born.