Despite the growing influence of humanism in American society, we remain a country of believers. This interesting map shows the dominant religion in the USA listed by county, according to the 2010 Religion Census. The original map is hosted at the RCMS page.  Click the map below to view it in full size.

Based on total land area covered, the dominant faiths are Catholic, Baptist, Latter-day Saint, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and United Methodists. By numbers, the five largest Christian denominations are:

• The Catholic Church, 68,503,456 members
• The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,160,088 members
• The United Methodist Church, 7,774,931 members
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,058,907 members
• The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members
• It should also be mentioned that while this map covers only Christian faiths, there are between 5.3 and 6.6 million Jews in America

In comparison, those who have no theistic practices (agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular”) as of 2008 numbered around 34 million, or 15% of the population. It is interesting to note that while this group is still small relative to the total population, they are the next largest group after Catholicism.

I’ve long been intrigued by comparative religion studies and the demographics of belief, and so this map caught my attention. More information on this topic can be found in various places around the web, but a good place to start is the Wikipedia article.

The Old Wolf has spoken.