In the new Religious Landscape Study (RLS), nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults who are currently married (74%) say they have the same religion as their spouse, a similar share as in the 2014 RLS (75%).
And 26% of married U.S. adults in the new study say their spouse has a religious identity that is different from their own. They include:
- 13% of married U.S. adults who are Christians paired with a religiously unaffiliated spouse, or vice versa;
- 7% of married U.S. adults who are Christians and whose spouse is part of a different Christian tradition, such as a Catholic married to a Protestant; and
- 6% of married people who are in other types of interfaith pairings, such as between a Jew and a Catholic, or between a Muslim and a religious “none.”
The survey also finds that 51% of married U.S. adults say their religious beliefs are very similar to their spouse’s beliefs. And 36% say they talk about religion with their spouse at least once a week.
Compared with people in religiously mixed marriages, respondents who are “in-married” (married to a person of the same religion) are more likely to say they share similar beliefs and talk about religion weekly or more often with their spouse.
All these findings depend, of course, on how one defines a religious intermarriage.
The analysis in this chapter is based on current, intact marriages. It compares the respondent’s current religion with their description of their spouse’s current religion at the time of the survey. (Spouses were not interviewed.)
This analysis does not include marriages that have ended – whether through divorce, annulment or death. Nor does it hinge on whether one spouse switched religions to join the other’s religion. For example, a former Christian who converted to Islam before (or after) marrying a Muslim would be counted as in-married – not as religiously intermarried – if they were married and shared a religion at the time of the survey.
In addition, this analysis treats Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) as separate religious groups. Marriages between people in any two of these traditions (such as between a Protestant and a Catholic) are counted as intermarriages throughout this chapter.
However, all varieties of Protestantism are treated as one religious group – meaning that a Baptist married to a Lutheran, or a Methodist married to a nondenominational Protestant, are not counted as intermarried.
Similarly, all religiously unaffiliated Americans are considered as one group. An atheist who is married to an agnostic, for instance, doesn’t count as religiously intermarried for the purposes of this analysis.
Jump to sections in this chapter about:
- Intermarriage across religious traditions
- Religiousness and intermarriage
- Similarities in religious views between spouses
- Similarities in the importance of religion between spouses
- Frequency of religious discussions in marriages
- Religion among unmarried people who are living with a partner
Intermarriage across religious traditions
Overall, 74% of married respondents in the survey say their spouse has the same religion they do, while 26% say their spouse identifies with a different religion, using the definitions outlined above.
Roughly nine-in-ten married Latter-day Saints (87%) have a spouse who is of the same religion, making people in this group more likely than married people in any other U.S. religious group we analyzed to be religiously in-married.
Meanwhile, 81% of married Protestants have spouses who also are Protestant, while 10% are married to religiously unaffiliated spouses and 7% have Catholic spouses.
Among married Catholics, three-quarters have spouses who are Catholic, 12% are married to Protestants, and 9% have spouses who are religiously unaffiliated.
Roughly two-thirds of married religiously unaffiliated people (68%) have a spouse who is religiously unaffiliated. A similar share of married Jewish respondents (65%) say they have a Jewish spouse.42
The survey did not include enough interviews with married people in other religious traditions – including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others – to be able to analyze their intermarriage patterns.
Religiousness and intermarriage
People who identify with the same religion as their spouse tend to have higher levels of religiousness than people married to someone of a different religion.43
For example, among Protestants who are married to other Protestants, 62% are highly religious, compared with 27% of Protestants who are married to non-Protestants.
And 46% of Catholics who are married to other Catholics display a high level of religious engagement, compared with 24% of Catholics married to non-Catholics.
Among Jewish respondents with Jewish spouses, 29% are highly religious. That is the case for 4% of Jewish respondents whose spouses are not Jewish.
Few religiously unaffiliated respondents are highly religious, regardless of whether their spouse identifies with a religion. That said, unaffiliated respondents whose spouses identify with a religion are less likely to exhibit low levels of religious engagement than are unaffiliated respondents whose spouses also are unaffiliated (60% vs. 72%).
The survey did not include enough interviews with married people in other religious traditions – including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others – to be able to analyze their intermarriage patterns. It also did not include enough married Latter-day Saints to analyze those who are intermarried.
These results don’t necessarily show that being in a religiously mixed marriage causes people to become less religious. Indeed, the causal arrow could just as easily point in the opposite direction: People who aren’t particularly religious may be more inclined to enter into a religiously mixed marriage.
Similarities in religious views between spouses
When asked to compare their own religious beliefs with those of their spouse, 51% of married respondents say their beliefs are very similar. An additional 30% say their beliefs and their spouse’s beliefs are somewhat similar, while 14% say they are not too similar or not at all similar.
Among married people whose spouse shares their religious identity, 62% report that their spouse has very similar religious beliefs. By contrast, among married people whose spouse does not share their religious identity, 21% say they and their spouse hold very similar religious beliefs.
Similarities in the importance of religion between spouses
Among married people who say religion is very important in their own life, 68% say it also is very important in their spouse’s life.
And among married people who say religion is not too or not at all important in their own life, 78% also say this is the case in their spouse’s life.
Frequency of religious discussions in marriages
Among married respondents, 36% report discussing religion with their spouse weekly or more often. And 47% say they discuss religion monthly or less often with their spouse, while 16% say they never talk with their spouse about religion.
People in same-religion marriages are more likely to discuss religion with their spouse than are people in interfaith relationships, according to the survey. Among U.S. adults married to someone of the same religion, 43% say they talk with their spouse about religion weekly or more often. Among those in mixed marriages, the corresponding share is 16%.
Religion among unmarried people who are living with a partner
Overall, 62% of unmarried people living with a partner identify with the same religion their partner does, while 38% say their partner has a different religious identity. By comparison, 74% of married people report that their spouse shares their religion, while 26% say their spouse has a different religious identity.
