The Pew Research Center yesterday released a new 265-page report (full text) with an appropriately long title: U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious-- Modest Drop in Overall Rates of Belief and Practice, but Religiously Affiliated Americans Are as Observant as Before. The Report analyzes findings from Pew's 2014 Religious Landscape Study. Chapter 4 of the Report analyzes the views of various U.S. religious groups on a wide variety of social and political topics. These include political party affiliation, the role of the government, government aid to the poor, environmental regulation, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, women in the workforce, childbearing out of wedlock, immigration and evolution.
Among the interesting findings is that the religiously unaffiliated (the "nones") is now the largest single religious group among those who self-identify as Democrats or as Democratic-leaning. 28% of Democrats are unaffiliated; while only 14% of Republicans are unaffiliated. The largest religious group among Republicans is Evangelical Protestants. They comprise 38% of Republicans, but only 16% of Democrats.
