this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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United States | News & Politics

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Seattle is the least-religious large metro area in the U.S. (www.seattletimes.com)
submitted 1 year ago by FirstCircle@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml
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A clear majority of adults in the Seattle area — around 64% — never attend church or religious services, or go less than once a year. That pencils out to about 1.98 million people out of the total 3.1 million population aged 18 and older in our metro area, which includes King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

The survey includes data from all 50 states plus the nation’s 15 largest metro areas, including Seattle. And among those 15, Seattle ranked the least religious, edging out San Francisco, where 63% never attend religious services, or go less than once a year. Boston was a distant third at 56%.

What may be surprising to folks in the Seattle area, though, is that the rest of Washington is nearly as nonreligious as Seattle. Statewide, 63% never or almost never attend religious services, just 1 percentage point lower than the number for the Seattle area.

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[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

I'm doing my part!

[–] SuperSynthia@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If religion wanted to be adhered to, it wouldn’t fill itself with hate

[–] DarkGamer@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

And if it were true, it would be independently invented the same way in multiple places that were never in contact, rather than the hodgepodge of overlapping and contradictory claims we see today.

[–] ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I miss my home 😭

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

It was an adopted home for me, but yeah, I feel your pain.

[–] fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago

I miss it too. No other place has felt like home the way Seattle did.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

You wouldn't think so from the amount of churches you see around, but I guess they feed the homeless and run preschools out of their basements more than they do actual preaching these days.

There's an old myth that Ballard used to require a church be constructed for every bar, and they really liked bars.

[–] pineapple_pizza@lemmy.dexlit.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

So much natural beauty in the area, most people would rather enjoy that than go to a lecture on their Sunday. Or maybe that's just me

[–] negativenull@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Thank God!!

oh, wait

[–] TruthAintEasy@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sh-should I move there? Where I am even athiests are going along with the religious nuts because it "owns the libs"

[–] Anamnesis@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Seattle is a leftist town, despite all the big corpos that employ a lot of us. And Washington is a fairly social democratic state, for somewhere in America, at least. It's pretty nice.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait, so a full 36% attend at least one service a year? Where do they find these people?

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Christmas evening mass. It's like the superbowl of church.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OK, fair. My family even does that sometimes, although they're not in the US.

I wonder what the numbers are for people who go to church twice or more per year.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 1 points 1 year ago

Probably not much more than Christmas, mayyyybe easter?

[–] artificialset@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

bloomer

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I'm so fucking lucky! It's awesome! Yeah Shelbyville! Eat all of our shorts!

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

One of the reasons I moved here, I love it