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California Religious Demographics

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.

Northern California
Alameda County
Contra Costa County
Humboldt County
Marin County
San Francisco County
San Mateo County
Sonoma County

Central Coast
Santa Barbara County
Santa Clara County

Central Valley
El Dorado County
Fresno County
Kern County
Sacramento County
San Joaquin County
Shasta County
Yuba County