Religious Diversity in America – What should marketers take note of?

by Rupa Ranganathan

At a time when politicians, talk show hosts and news media are fanning religious flames with much abandon, many marketers still want to wear blinkers when it comes to the recognition of the role fo religion in the lives of everyday Americans. Today, there are "pillows in the place of pews" in an ld Baptist church in Seattle which is now a Buddhist monastery filled with local people rather than Tibetan immigrants. This echoes the findings of a recent Pew study that reveals that nearly three quarters of Buddhists in America, are native born. A sizeable number of Americans have switched their religious affiliations.

The Pew Forum released its U.S. Religious Landscape survey which is based on interviews with 35,000 over the age of 18. By any measure, this is a valuable reference point for marketers, especially when there are significant ethno-racial aspects to glean from this study.

Some of the highlights of the study are of importance to marketers and multicultural experts.

Native born vs. foreign born

Among foreign born adults, Catholics outnumber Protestants 2 to 1 and Latino immigration has given rise to a very distinctive brand of Latino churches in the country.

Religion and family size

Mormons and Muslims are the groups with the largest familes. More than one in five Mormons and 15% of Muslim adults in the U.S. have three children living at home.

Regional dispersion of Religion

The Midwest most closely resemnbles the makeup of the overall population. The South, by a wide margin, has the heaviest concentraion of members of Evangelical Protestant churches. The Northeast has the greatest concentration of Catholics, and the West has the largest proportion of unaffiliated.

Religion and Educational Attainment/Income Levels

Nearly half of the Hindus in the U.S., one third of Jews and a quarter of Buddhists have obtained post-graduate education compared with only about one in ten of the adult population overall. Hindus and Jews are also much more likely than other groups to report high income levels.

And P.S

Muslims from South Asia speak Urdu, Punjabi. Bengali and Urdu ---and not Arabic in their daily life and recite their prayers in Arabic.