Story at a glance
- More members of Congress identify as Protestant than the general U.S. population.
- Only one member of Congress, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), identifies as religiously unaffiliated.
- Data are based on lawmakers’ responses to the CQ Roll Call survey.
The number of lawmakers who identify as Christian serving in the 118th Congress outpaces that of the general U.S. population, as more Americans move away from both Christianity and, more broadly, religious affiliations altogether.
That’s according to a new report from Pew Research Center which found nearly 90 percent of the incoming Congress identifies as Christian, compared with 63 percent of the U.S. population.
Data showed that the lawmakers are also more likely to identify as Protestant than the general population, at 57 percent vs 40 percent, respectively. Newly-elected members were more likely than returning members to identify as Protestant, responses from CQ Roll Call show. Pew researchers based their report on the survey, which assesses the demographic characteristics of congressional members.
Similarly, Catholics account for 28 percent of the incoming Congress, though only 21 percent of the U.S. population identifies as Catholic.
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The findings come alongside a decades-long decline in Americans who identify as Christian. Pew data show that the total has decreased from 89 percent in the early 1970s to just over 70 percent in the late 2010s. During that time period, more Americans also reported having no religious affiliation with totals rising from 6 percent to 22 percent.
These trends were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a decline in church membership, attendance and belief in God, survey data show.
Despite these changes, the rate of Christian members in Congress has largely remained the same over the years. Ninety-one percent of Congress identified as Christian in the 1979-80 Congress, compared with 88 percent today.
By party affiliation, 99 percent of incoming congressional Republicans describe themselves as Christians. Around 76 percent of Democrats said the same.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) is the only current member of Congress who identifies as religiously unaffiliated. Twenty members of Congress have unknown religious affiliations, as they declined to provide the information for the CQ survey.
Still, the representation of some faiths outpaces or is equal to the general population. Jewish members make up a slim majority of non-Christian Congress members, researchers found. In the incoming Congress, 6 percent of lawmakers identify as Jewish compared with 2 percent of the U.S. population.
Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are about equally represented in Congress as they are throughout the country, representing around 1 percent or less in each group.
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