None Of The Above: Survey Finds San Francisco 2nd Most Religiously Unaffiliated Metro Area
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A newly-released survey finds the largest religious affiliation in the San Francisco metropolitan area is no affiliation, with a third of people saying they are unaffiliated.
In the American Values Atlas published by the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, 33 percent of people said they were unaffiliated with any religion. San Francisco is tied with Seattle for the second-highest percentage of religiously unaffiliated people among 30 U.S. metros surveyed.
Portland, Oregon has the highest percentage of people not affiliated with a religion (42 percent). Nationally, 22 percent said they are unaffiliated.
Among those in the Bay Area who said they are affiliated with a religion, 26 percent of those surveyed said they are Catholic. Protestants (mainline and evangelical) constitute 23 percent of those surveyed.
Ten percent of those surveyed locally said they belong to a non-Christian religion. Four percent said they are Jewish, two percent said they are Muslims, two percent are Buddhist and two percent were classified among "other religion."
The institute defined the San Francisco metro area based on U.S. Census definitions.
More than 50,000 people in all 50 states and 30 metropolitan areas nationwide were interviewed for the survey.