US Protestant majority in decline

NEW statistics on religious diversity show the US’s historic Protestant majority has plummeted to 52%, and by the end of 2004 it may no longer be the nation’s dominant religious group.

The percentage of Americans who said they belonged to one of several Protestant denominations, such as Baptist, Methodist or Lutheran, or who called themselves “non-denominational Protestants”, hovered around 62% from 1972 until 1993, according to the General Social Survey.

It was conducted by the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago.