Nearly 80 percent of Americans are Christian

As the year 2012 unfolds, more than three-quarters of Americans identify themselves as Christian, Gallup re­ports. Its pollsters found that in more than 325,000 interviews it conducted in the first 11 months of last year, 78 percent of U.S. adults identify with Christianity.

Overall, more than 82 percent of Americans have a religious identity, with this breakdown:

• Protestant/other Christian: 52.5 percent
• Catholic: 23.6 percent
• Mormon: 1.9 percent
• Jewish: 1.6 percent
• Muslim: 0.5 percent
• Other non-Christian religions: 2.4 percent
• None/atheist/agnostic: 15 percent
• No response: 2.5 percent

The findings fit the trend of an increasing percentage of Americans not embracing a formal religious identity (15 percent). In 1951, only 1 percent did not have a religious identity.

Gallup found in 2011 that 92 percent of Americans said they believe in God, which suggests that a lack of religious identity is not necessarily linked to atheism.  —RNS