Gallup Poll: Religious Intensity Predicts Party Identification, With Caveats

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A new Gallup survey shows that religious intensity continues to be a strong predictor of party identification, with religious Americans more likely to identify as Republicans and more secular Americans more likely to be Democrats. But there's an important caveat: Being religious is a less dependable predictor of party identification than being unreligious.

Americans whom Gallup describes as "not religious" are 56 percent Democrat and just 26 percent Republican, a 30 point spread. Among those Gallup categorizes as "religious," more actually identify as Democrats than Republicans. It's only among "highly religious" Americans that Republicans enjoy an advantage, 49 percent to 37 percent.

Highly religious Americans account for a third of American adults, while 18 percent are religious. About half of Americans are "less religious" or "not religious," according to Gallup.

This graph sums up the report pretty nicely:

Read the full Gallup report here.

• See President Obama's top faith leaders.
• Follow Dan Gilgoff on Twitter.