Religion in America - Non-christian Houses Of Worship

The chart shows the number of synagogues and religious centers for a selection of major non-Christian faiths. Data for Jewish synagogues are from 1990. Data for the Baha'i faith are from 2001. The Baha'i faith has one House of Worship in the United States (in Illinois); however, each local Baha'i community has an elected Spiritual Assembly. The data shown are the approximate number of Spiritual Assemblies in the United States. The data for the remaining religions are from January 2002.

The number of synagogues and religious centers corresponds to the number of adherents in each of the religions. Adherents to Judaism made up the largest population (2.8 million in 2001) and they also had the most houses of worship (more than 3,400 synagogues). Taoists had the lowest population (40,000 in 2001) and had the fewest houses of worship in the United States (9 Temples⁹).

Where is each of these populations concentrated? The following table shows the states in which the most houses of worship can be found. In the case of Taoism, however, the states listed are the only states where Taoist Temples can be found, according to ReligionQuest.com.

Concentrations of Non-Christian Houses of Worship, 2002

	States with the most houses of worship	States with no houses of worship
Jewish Synagogues	NY, CA, FL, PA, IL, MA, Washington	-
	D.C.10
Islamic Religious Centers	100+: CA, IL, NY	-
	50-99: MI, OH, NJ, MD, VA, NC, GA, FL
Buddhist Religious Centers	100+: CA, NY	WY, ND, SD
	50-99: WA, CO, TX, IL, MA, HI
Baha'i Spiritual Assemblies	Data not available	Data not available
Hindu Religious Centers	100+: CA	MT, WY, ND, SD, IN, AR
	50-99: NY, NJ
	25-49: TX, FL, MD, IL
Sikh Religious Centers	50-99: CA	ID, WY, ND, SD, NE, AR, KY,
	10-24: TX, OH, NY	WV, SC, RI, NH, VT, ME
Taoist Temples	7: CA	Rest of the United States
	1: CO, TX

The next panel discusses the impact the Internet has on our religious life.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1994. The Pluralism Project. "Geographic Distribution of Religious Centers in the U.S." Online. Available: http://www.pluralism.org/resources/statistics/distribution.php. March 6, 2002. "Wel-come to The Baha'i Faith — Community." Online. Available: http://www.us.bahai.org/community/index.html. March 6, 2002. "Taoist Temples and Centers in the West." Online. Available: http://www.ReligionQuest.com. March 7, 2002. World ORT. Antisemitism World Report 1997. Online. Available: http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/antsemus.htm. March 7, 2002.

10 Based on a listing of cities with the highest concentration of the Jewish population. Those cities were: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C. Data taken from World ORT.