Religiousness Varies a Lot by Race Among Democrats, Relatively Little Among Republicans

Democrats are less likely than Republicans to believe in God, to pray, to attend religious services, and to say religion is very important to them, according to Pew Research Center surveys.

At the same time, among Democrats, religiousness differs widely by race and ethnicity. On a host of measures, White Democrats – and sometimes Asian Democrats – are a lot less religious than Black and Hispanic Democrats. Among Republicans, there is less variation.

In general, U.S. adults who are Republican or lean toward the GOP are more religious than Democrats and Democratic leaners.

For instance, 52% of Republicans say they pray daily, compared with 35% of Democrats. And 41% of Republicans say they go to religious services monthly or more often, compared with 24% of Democrats.

We combined these two questions (about prayer and religious attendance) with two others (about belief in God and how important people say religion is to them). By this measure, Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to be highly religious.

Meanwhile, Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to score low on the same scale (34% vs. 14%).

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