Religion Continues to Play Significant Role in Party Identification

Gallup interviews conducted over the past four months suggest that "religion remains a significant correlate of political party identification in the U.S. today." As has been the case historically, people who are "very religious" are more likely to identify as Republicans and less likely to identify as Democrats. Survey data shows that 49 percent of very religious Americans identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, as compared with only 30 percent of nonreligious Americans.

Gallup categorized respondents as very, moderately, or not religious based on their answers to two questions regarding "the importance of religion and church attendance." For the very religious, "religion is an important part of daily life" and respondents attend their place of worship once every week (or almost every week). The nonreligious do not consider religion to play an important role in their everyday lives, and they seldom attend services. The moderately religious include "all who do not fall into the very religious or nonreligious groups but who provided valid responses on both religion questions ."

The impact of religion on party identification is most clearly visible among whites: 62 percent of very religious whites identify as Republicans, compared with 33 percent of nonreligious whites. Hispanics and Asians are on the whole more affiliated with the Democratic Party than they are with the Republican Party, but "very religious Hispanics and Asians skew less Democratic and more Republican than those who are moderately religious or nonreligious."
According to Gallup, "Very religious Hispanics are more likely to identify as Democrats than as Republicans by 17 points, compared with a 30-point difference among nonreligious Hispanics." And Among Asians, "net Democratic identification rises from 12 points among the very religious to 39 points among [the] nonreligious." Blacks, however, appear to be the exception to the rule. They are "the most Democratic of the four racial and ethnic groups," and religion appears to make little or no "difference in blacks' political orientation." If anything, more religious blacks tend to affiliate as Democrats with slightly more frequency: 78 percent of very religious blacks identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning, as compared with 74 percent of nonreligious blacks. Gallup writes on the exception: "The historical ties between blacks and the Democratic Party are so strong that they overwhelm any of the independent impact of religiousness so evident among other racial groups."
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