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[A PDF copy of this study is available here. - Adobe Acrobat or Reader required]
American Religious Identification Survey
COVERAGE OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS
One of the distinguishing features of this survey, as of its predecessor in 1990, is that respondents were asked to describe themselves in terms of religion with an open-ended question. Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. Moreover, the self-description of respondents was not based on whether established religious bodies, institutions, churches, mosques or synagogues considered them to be members. Quite the contrary, the survey sought to determine whether the respondents themselves regarded themselves as adherents of a religious community. Subjective rather than objective standards of religious identification were tapped by the survey.
The overall refusal rate for the question on religion is very low, only 5.7 %. The responses categories to this question also included a "None/No religion option - chosen by 15% -- as well as a generic 'Christian' response chosen by 7% and an unspecified 'Protestant' response chosen by 2%.
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