31. Tracking Vaccination by Religion at the County Level
- Author:
- PRRI Staff
- Publication Date:
- 09-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- PRRI: Public Religion Research Institute
- Abstract:
- Previous research conducted throughout 2021 by PRRI and IFYC has shown that religious affiliation is correlated with vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, and refusal. This report explores the relationship between religious identity and vaccination rates at the local level. It combines county-level religion estimates from PRRI’s 2020 Census of American Religion with county-level COVID-19 vaccination data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state sources to examine those patterns at the county level.1 The report focuses on only the largest religious groups in the country—those comprising more than 10% of the population—in order to reliably analyze the relationship between vaccination and religious populations across counties in all regions of the country. That includes white evangelical Protestants, white mainline (non-evangelical) Protestants, white Catholics, and the religiously unaffiliated.2 In addition to their geographic dispersion, these religious affiliation groups represent some of the most likely—and the least likely—religious groups to get vaccinated. In June of this year, a PRRI–IFYC survey found that white evangelical Protestants were the least likely group to be vaccine acceptant: Only 56% said they had gotten vaccinated against the coronavirus or would get the vaccine as soon as possible. Other white Christian groups were much more vaccine acceptant, including 74% of white mainline Protestants and 79% of white Catholics. Additionally, 75% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say they have gotten vaccinated or will get vaccinated as soon as possible.
- Topic:
- Religion, Local, Public Health, Vaccine, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America