Why the U.S. Census doesn’t Ask Americans About their Religion

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Census forms in the United States don’t ask about religion, but relatively few U.S. adults (25%) know this, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted shortly before census forms were mailed out in 2020.

Indeed, while the Census Bureau has long collected troves of data on Americans’ income, employment, race, ethnicity, housing and other things, the decennial census, held since 1790, has never directly asked Americans about their religion.

That’s not to say the census hasn’t gathered data about Americans’ faith backgrounds through other means from time to time. This analysis answers some basic questions about the often-debated place of religion in the census throughout much of U.S. history.

Many critics have argued that making Americans identify their religion on a government form would go against long-held understandings of the separation between church and state. Some have worried that including such questions would deter people from filling out their census forms. Others, including heads of Jewish organizations in the U.S. in the decades after the Holocaust, expressed unease about the prospect of official counts of religious groups, fearing it could lead to antisemitism and allow for government tracking. Groups including Christian Scientists, some Baptist groups and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also had objections.

Those who have favored adding a religion question have contended that official religion data would be useful to religious leaders, school planners, researchers and various civic groups.

After public debate over the issue in the 1960s and ’70s, the Census Bureau’s director, Vincent P. Barabba, announced in April 1976 that there would be no question on religion in the upcoming 1980 census, on the grounds that “asking such a question in the decennial census, in which replies are mandatory, would appear to infringe upon the traditional separation of church and [s]tate.” He added, “Regardless of whether this perception is legally sound, controversy on this very sensitive issue could affect public cooperation in the census and thus jeopardize the success of the census.”