Christians, Jews punching above demographic weight in Congress, Pew finds

Christians and Jews are overrepresented in Congress compared to their relative size in the general population of the US, while those without religious affiliation are practically absent from the halls of American power, according to an analysis by Pew Research Center of the 118th Congress.

Nearly 88 percent of members of Congress identify as Christian, compared with only 63% of US adults overall. That includes 57% of congresspersons who identify as Protestant and 28% as Catholic, both higher than national rates.

Another 6% of members of Congress identify as Jewish, compared with 2% of the overall population.

Even though nearly three in 10 Americans claim no religious affiliation — a rate that has steadily risen in recent years — only two of the 534 incoming members of Congress publicly identify as such.

Congress “remains largely untouched by two trends that have long marked religious life in the United States: a decades-long decline in the share of Americans who identify as Christian, and a corresponding increase in the percentage who say they have no religious affiliation,” says the Pew report released Tuesday. It is based on a CQ Roll Call survey of members of Congress.

Pew lists 20 other members of Congress as having unknown religious affiliations, either because they declined to answer CQ Roll Call’s query or because the answers are otherwise muddled (such as in the case of New York Republican George Santos, along with much else in his background).