By far, the Roman Catholic Church, which has 62 million members in the United States, is the largest church group in the United States.
Next in line are the Southern Baptist Convention, with 15.7 million; the United Methodist Church, with 8.4 million; the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., with 8.2 million; the Church of God in Christ, with 5.5 million; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 5.2 million.
By region, Catholics tend to live in the Northeast, Southwest, and West.
Baptists tend to live in the South, especially in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
States having the most Methodists include Delaware, Iowa, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Kansas. Large numbers of Lutherans live in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.
There are about 4.3 million Jews in the United States, making up about 2 percent of the population.
An estimated 4 million to 6 million Muslims, people who practice the Islamic religion, now live in the United States, and the number is growing steadily.
Although Muslims have lived in the United States since its beginnings, many more immigrated to the United States after a change in immigration laws in 1965, which allowed immigrants who could make an immediate and substantial contribution to society, such as doctors and engineers, to move here.
After that time, many professional people came to the United States from largely Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and several Arabian countries.
After Christianity, Islam is the second largest religious group in the world, with more than a billion practitioners worldwide.
