How America gains 600,000 new Christians each year — without evangelism

By Melissa Steffan

America has been gaining more than 600,000 new Christians each year—all without the help of any evangelism efforts.

According to a new report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 620,000 Christian immigrants received green cards in 2012, joining the nearly 250 million Christians in the U.S. overall.

The data presented in Pew’s latest, wide-ranging analysis are based primarily off of estimates, since the government doesn’t track specific religious affiliation for new permanent residents. Even so, the report contains interesting findings, including the fact that the majority of U.S. immigrants—both authorized and unauthorized—are Christian.

Pew estimates that the share of new, Christian legal permanent residents (LPR) decreased seven percent over the past 20 years, down to 61 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, the shares of LPR immigrants who belong to minority faiths including Islam and Hinduism increased, and 1 in 4 green card recipients now is a religious minority. This corresponds with a rising share of immigrants from regions other than Latin America, including southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.