Religion in Nevada…Interesting Observation

I just returned from spending five weeks back in the Midwest, Wisconsin in particular. While back in Wisconsin, the first time I had spent any significant time in the Midwest for many, many years…I noticed the huge amount of churches there. And more were in the process of being built. As such, when I returned back to Nevada this April, I sort of noticed the lack of churches here in comparison to Wisconsin. So I did some digging. 

The results of this research was rather interesting. I used the 2007 United States Census Bureau Statistical Abstract to try to gauge the interest in religion here in Nevada. And the result was surprising.

The Census Bureau breaks down their state by state comparison of religious affiliation into two segments, Christian Church Adherents and Jewish Population. I was unable to find the “number of churches per capita” sadly, but will keep looking.

In terms of Christian Church Adherents, Nevada is second to last…with 30.2% of the population being considered Christian Church Adherents. So what is a Christian Church Adherent? According to the Census Bureau, it is:

Only the State of Oregon ranked lower than Nevada, with 30.1% of the Oregon population considering themselves Christian Church Adherents. And while looking over the table for the state by state breakdown, the entire Western USA with the exception of Utah (74.3%) and to some extent New Mexico (57.2%) has a significantly lower percentage of people who consider themselves Christian Church Adherents then is found in the Great Plains, the Midwest, the Northeast and of course the Southeast. Even Idaho, a heavily mormon state…only had 48.3% of the population consider themselves Christian Church Adherents.

With these numbers in mind, it is not surprising I guess that the number of churches in Nevada not only seemed low…but is low. Yes, there are churches here. And I thought I even read somehwere that Las Vegas has a very high number of churches per capita. But…how many people actually go to those churches? Judging by the low percent of population in Nevada who do, I suspect, not nearly as many as is found elsewhere in the country.

On the other hand, Nevada really surprised me with the percentage of people who are Jewish. 3.8% of the population of Nevada consider themselves Jewish…a very high number considering that the Jewish population in the United States is just 1.1%.  Indeed, Nevada has the largest jewish population in terms of percentage of population of any state that is west of the Applachian Mountains.

You can view the information about religious affiliation in the United States in the online Statistical Abstract the Census Bureau provides.

The Link is Here…and then scroll down to TABLE 75.