Religious Profiles of Sample California Counties
Every decade, the Glenmary Research Center publishes a profile of the religious affiliations of residents in every county in the United States. This is the major source of information that is currently available for identifying the relative sizes of the nation’s many faith traditions and for tracking long-term trends in religious affiliation. We have used information from the Glenmary Research Center to create religious profiles for a representative sample of California counties.
In the following profiles, we list the top ten faith communities for each county, measured by the size of their memberships. We add available information about non-Christian traditions. Our intention is to highlight the fact that the religious affiliations of California residents assume very different patterns in various regions of the state.
All statistics are self-reported by denominational “headquarters” and/or associations. Critics of the Glenmary report argue that this procedure may limit the reliability of statistics, because different definitions of membership may be utilized by leaders in various religious traditions.
California County Profiles
Alameda County
Contra Costa County
El Dorado County
Fresno County
Humboldt County
Kern County
Los Angeles County
Marin County
Orange County
Riverside County
Sacramento County
San Bernardino County
San Diego County
San Francisco County
San Joaquin County
San Mateo County
Santa Barbara County
Santa Clara County
Shasta County
Sonoma County
Yuba County
Photo Credit: Alan Wolf/Flickr
