Churches in California

Religious Landscape of California

California is the most religiously diverse state in the nation. The Catholic Church is the largest single denomination, serving a vast Hispanic Catholic population that traces its heritage to the state's Spanish mission era. With roughly 12 million Catholics, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest in the United States. Non-denominational churches have proliferated across the state's suburban sprawl, and California is the birthplace of several influential church movements, including Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard movement, and the Jesus People revival of the 1970s. Saddleback Church, founded by Rick Warren, is one of the most recognized congregations in American Protestantism. Southern Baptists, though not traditionally associated with the West Coast, operate over 2,000 congregations in California, many serving transplant communities from the South and Midwest. California is also home to the largest Korean Presbyterian, Vietnamese Catholic, Filipino Catholic, and Chinese Protestant communities in the country. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Judaism all have major institutional presences, particularly in the Bay Area and Los Angeles basin. Despite this richness, California's overall adherence rate is moderate at around 38%, as a large share of the population identifies as religiously unaffiliated.