Religious Beliefs In Arizona

Arizona gained statehood on February 14, 1912, which made it the 48th state. It is the sixth largest state in the country by land area. Phoenix is the capital and the largest city in the state. Arizona is bordered by California, Utah, Colorado, Mexico, Nevada and New Mexico. The Arizona-Mexico boundary is about 389 miles long and the two Mexican states which border Arizona are Baja California and Sonora.

Religious Beliefs In Arizona

Nnon-denominational Evangelical Protestants represent the largest religious group in Arizona, followed by the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church. Even though the number of Catholic Church members dropped from 974,884 in 2000 to 930,001 in 2010, it still has the highest numbers of followers in Arizona. The number of adherents of the Mormon Church grew from 251,974 members in 2000 to 410,263 in 2010 followed by the non-denominational Christians with about 281,105 members. The religious bodies with the most congregations in Arizona are the Mormon Church with 836 groups and the Southern Baptist Convention with 323 congregations.

Over 39% of the residents are Protestants, Catholics (21%), Mormon (5%), Jewish (2%), and Jehovah witness (1%). About 27% of the residents in Arizona are not affiliated with any religious group. Some of the most prominent Protestant churches include the United Methodist Church (54,977), Southern Baptist Convention (126,830), the Assemblies of God (123,713) and the Presbyterian Church with over 26,078 adherents. The LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ) is the newest denomination in the state which began in 2001, and by 2010 it had over 14,350 members in Arizona.

The biggest non-Christian denomination in Arizona with over 32,000 adherents in 2010 is Hinduism; which is about 1% of the population in Arizona. Judaism is the second biggest non-Christian denomination with over 20,000 followers in about three denominations followed by Buddhism which has over 19,000 followers in numerous denominations.

Demographics Of Arizona

Arizona is the fourteenth most populous state in the country with a population of over 7million people. Arizona remained sparsely populated for the better part of the nineteenth century, and by 1860 it had a population of over 6,482. Metro-Phoenix is home to over two-thirds of the people in Arizona. The number of people living in Phoenix grew by 45.3% from 1991 to 2001, and by 2017 the capital had a population of about 4.7 million.