It will come as no surprise to most Utahns that their state is the most religion-saturated place in the United States, with 74.7 percent of the population affiliated with a faith.
Of those, 89 percent are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a new study of U.S. religions by Glenmary Research Center of Nashville, Tenn. Just over 25 percent of Utahns are "unclaimed," or not affiliated with the religious groups the center surveyed.
Utahns will not be startled to learn that the state is among the least religiously diverse places in America.
The LDS Church was the fastest growing church in America -- increasing by 19 percent -- with the Pentecostal denomination Assemblies of God following closely at 18.5 percent, according to Glenmary's research.
The LDS Church now is the sixth-largest religious body in the nation, with 4,224,026 members, inching just ahead of the the Presbyterians, with 3,141,566.
"We have not seen the report," LDS Church spokesman Mike Otterson said Tuesday, but he did note that "close to 300,000 individuals over the age of 8 have joined the church every year for more than a decade."
At the same time, several liberal Protestant denominations, including Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, continued a slow decline in membership.
But some other findings of a just-released survey, "Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States: 2000," are less predictable: For example, there are more Catholics in the West, including Utah, than in the traditionally Catholic Midwest.
The data are compiled every 10 years by several religious bodies and assembled by Glenmary, a Catholic research and social service organization. It is meant to correspond with the U.S. census, which does not ask about religious affiliation.
For the first time in its 50 years, the 149 religious organizations providing information for this survey included several non-Christian groups.
Eastern religions reported about 150,000 adherents in 4,000 congregations, but that might be far lower than the real numbers, researchers reported, because many Hindus and Buddhists do not worship in any organized community.
The study estimates the U.S. Jewish population at 6 million, which does include many people who are not affiliated with a synagogue.
"The Jewish estimate includes secular Jews and is therefore most unlike the data for other groups" whose counts are for individuals actually participating in a local congregation, Richard Houseal, who assisted with data collection, said on the center's Web site.
Figures for predominantly black denominations, such as the National Baptist Convention, are not included because these groups did not participate in the study because of lack of funds for gathering the information.
The most controversial numbers may involve Muslims. The study suggested that there are 1.6 million Muslims in America, while several Islamic groups say the number is between 2 million and 6 million.
Researchers defended the Muslim number as "more closely resembling the number of people actually associated with a mosque," Houseal wrote.
A person does not have to attend services at a mosque to be considered Muslim, said Noor ul-Hasan, whose husband, Masood, is the president of the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake. "It's between you and God."
The study lists 3,482 Muslims in the Salt Lake City-Ogden metropolitan area, while local Muslims say the number is closer to 25,000.
"That definitely is not accurate," ul-Hasan said. "We get more than 3,000 every time we celebrate our two religious holidays every year."
These celebrations have typically been held at the Utah State Fairpark, and every year they "have to keep getting a bigger and bigger place," she said.
Although the state remains dominated by Mormons, a county-by-county study reveals fascinating religious development:
* Daggett, Piute and Rich counties report 100 percent of their religious adherents are Mormon, but the first two also have a high percentage of "unclaimed" respondents -- 46.9 and 56.8 respectively.
* Summit County, home to Park City, has the lowest percentage of LDS members, followed by Carbon County, a mining community in central Utah which boasts a large population of Democrats.
* In Grand County, which stretches from midstate to the eastern border, the Society of Friends (Quakers) went from 5 members in 1990 to 38 in 2000, a 660 percent increase.
* United Methodists in Beaver County nearly doubled, from 18 to 35.
* The Salvation Army increased by 1,457 percent, from 19 to 296.
The number of Catholics reported in the state is somewhat questionable. The study lists only 72,000 Roman Catholics, while the diocese estimates that there are between 150,000 and 200,000 in the state.
In the nation, the Catholic Church is still the largest religious body, with 62 million. It is followed by Southern Baptists (20 million), and United Methodists (10 million).
Four metro areas report the smallest percentage of the participating religious groups: Medford, Ore., (22 percent); Corvallis, Ore., (23 percent); Redding, Calif., (24 percent); and Eugene, Ore. (24 percent).
The West tends to have the smallest percentage of religious people claimed overall, and the four metro areas with the low- est percentage of claimed are all along Interstate 5 from Corvallis, Ore., to Redding, Calif.
Loving County, Texas, is the only county where none of the 149 groups in the study report congregations or adherents.