The Seattle Times analyzed a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau and found that Seattle, Washington is the least religious among America’s metropolitan areas, with around 64% of adults never or rarely attending religious services.
Seattle has a high concentration of younger adults and is demographically less likely to attend church services.
“A clear majority of adults in the Seattle area — around 64% — never attend church or religious services, or go less than once a year,” the report stated. “That pencils out to about 1.98 million people out of the total 3.1 million population aged 18 and older in our metro area, which includes King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.”
Seattle is least-religious metro area in the US, less than San Francisco, New York: Report https://t.co/nNZfUOMFbR
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Some regional and demographic patterns emerged, showing rough cultural boundaries, with the state of Washington being notably irreligious.
“The southern parts of the U.S. tend to be more religious, so it’s not surprising to see three Sunbelt cities with the lowest share of nonreligious residents among large metros,” the news outlet said. “In Dallas, 40.5% never attend a service or go less than once a year. Houston and Atlanta were just a little higher.”
“What may be surprising to folks in the Seattle area, though, is that the rest of Washington is nearly as nonreligious as Seattle. Statewide, 63% never or almost never attend religious services, just 1 percentage point lower than the number for the Seattle area,” The Seattle Times wrote. “Washington ranked as the fifth least-religious state. Maine and Vermont were at the top, both at around 69%, followed by Oregon (65%) and New Hampshire (64%). Mississippi had the lowest share of nonreligious people, with only 30% never or almost never attending services.”
White people in Seattle have the highest percentage of not attending services, while Black people have the lowest.
“The survey data shows only 35% of Black people nationally never or almost never attend services, the lowest of any racial or ethnic group. White people had the highest percentage, at 54%,” they wrote. “Census data shows in the Seattle area that Black people made up just 6% of the total population in 2022, second lowest among the 15 metro areas. White people were 57% of the total, fourth highest among the metros.”