North America is a majority Christian continent consisting of five countries: Canada, the USA, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Greenland and Bermuda. It is generally agreed that this region is secularising; Canada, for example, has experienced a substantial decline in its Christian per centage, dropping more than 30 percentage points in 120 years (from 98% to 63.5%). In the USA, there is less Christian affiliation in the Northeast and West than in the south and centre of the country.

Christianity in North America, 1970–2020

Major Christian Tradition by Province, 2020

The diversity of North American Christianity is on full display when viewed from the perspective of the major Christian traditions. The region is home to sizable populations of the four major traditions. Catholics are the largest, with 88 million and 24% of the region's population, with the highest concentrations in Quebec and the Northwest Territories in Canada and in the USA throughout the Northeast, parts of the West, West Coast and Pacific Northwest. Protestants are the majority in all other Canadian provinces, the USA upper Midwest and the region known as the ‘Bible belt’ in the South. Independents form the majority in the US states of Texas (largely due to megachurches) and Utah and Idaho (due to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

Major Christian traditions, 1970 and 2020

The internal makeup of Christianity in North America has changed slightly in the last 50 years. Catholics are still the largest tradition, with 88 million affiliates. The biggest change has been the actual and proportional decline of Protestantism, which dropped from 61 million in 1970 to 55 million in 2020.

Christians, 1970–2020

Christianity is the largest religion in North America, but it is experiencing a slow proportional decline. Christianity dropped from 92% in 1970 to 73% in 2020. Many Christians are becoming non-religious. Others are leaving institutionalised Christianity but continue to hold Christian beliefs.

Religious affi liation, 1970 and 2020

North America is a religiously diverse region and is home to large populations of agnostics (17%) and atheists (3%), with smaller populations of other religionists, such as Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. Adherents of these other world religions have been increasing since the 1960s with changes in immigration law.