Today’s Boston Globe has a story about the distribution of religions in the U.S. today. You can read the entire story here. The story is accompanied by a series of maps showing the distribution of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, and those who consider themselves non-religious. I saw a few states that surprised me, but overall the map is what I expected.

This is the work of the polling company, Gallup. Gallup has a more complete article here. The survey was compiled via telephone.

For historic religious distribution maps check these websites:

• The Library of Congress website has scanned images of religious distribution in 1890.

• The David Rumsey Map Collection website has some religious atlases.

• Google Books has a preview of the Atlas of American Religion.

Many such maps and atlases can be found in map libraries and in the reference sections of public, historical and university libraries.

© 2009, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.