The Runner-Up Religions Of America

A partial snapshot of US religious diversity, along with some interesting histories of some of the communities involved:

Glance at the map above, Second Largest Religious Tradition in Each State 2010, and you will see that Buddhism orange, Judaism pink and Islam blue are the runner-up religions across the country.No surprises there.

But can you believe that Hindu dark orange is the Number Two tradition in Arizona and Delaware, and that Bahai green ranks second in South Carolina?

The map — created by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies and published recently in The Washington Post — “looks very odd to me,” says Hillary Kaell. She is a professor at Concordia University in Montreal who specializes in North American Christianity. “These numbers, although they look impressive when laid out in the map, represent a very tiny fraction of the population in any of the states listed.”

True that. Christianity is the Number One religious tradition across the board. A 2012 Gallup poll showed that 77 percent of Americans identify as Christians. But a deeper look into the stories behind the maps data reveal a bit more about a nation in flux.

The Runner-Up Religions Of America : The Protojournalist : NPR.

Canadian Comparison: