A clear majority of adults in the Seattle area — around 64% — never attend church or religious services, or go less than once a year. That pencils out to about 1.98 million people out of the total 3.1 million population aged 18 and older in our metro area, which includes King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

The survey includes data from all 50 states plus the nation’s 15 largest metro areas, including Seattle. And among those 15, Seattle ranked the least religious, edging out San Francisco, where 63% never attend religious services, or go less than once a year. Boston was a distant third at 56%.

What may be surprising to folks in the Seattle area, though, is that the rest of Washington is nearly as nonreligious as Seattle. Statewide, 63% never or almost never attend religious services, just 1 percentage point lower than the number for the Seattle area.

  • @SuperSynthia
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    325 months ago

    If religion wanted to be adhered to, it wouldn’t fill itself with hate

    • DarkGamer
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      105 months ago

      And if it were true, it would be independently invented the same way in multiple places that were never in contact, rather than the hodgepodge of overlapping and contradictory claims we see today.

  • @bus_factor
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    125 months ago

    You wouldn’t think so from the amount of churches you see around, but I guess they feed the homeless and run preschools out of their basements more than they do actual preaching these days.

    There’s an old myth that Ballard used to require a church be constructed for every bar, and they really liked bars.

  • @[email protected]
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    85 months ago

    So much natural beauty in the area, most people would rather enjoy that than go to a lecture on their Sunday. Or maybe that’s just me

  • @[email protected]
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    85 months ago

    I’m from the Seattle area, and that seems about right. Most of my friends were agnostic or uninterested, with a couple vehemently atheist. Even my religious friends were relative slackers, with most just going to Christmas and Easter mass or whatever the protestants call it.

    I’m quite religious, but even I’m relatively chill about it compared to others in my religion. There must be something in the water up there.

  • @bus_factor
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    55 months ago

    Wait, so a full 36% attend at least one service a year? Where do they find these people?

      • @bus_factor
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        45 months ago

        OK, fair. My family even does that sometimes, although they’re not in the US.

        I wonder what the numbers are for people who go to church twice or more per year.

  • @cmbabul
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    55 months ago

    One of the reasons I moved here, I love it

  • TruthAintEasy
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    55 months ago

    Sh-should I move there? Where I am even athiests are going along with the religious nuts because it “owns the libs”

    • @Anamnesis
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      5 months ago

      Seattle is a leftist town, despite all the big corpos that employ a lot of us. And Washington is a fairly social democratic state, for somewhere in America, at least. It’s pretty nice.

  • @werefreeatlast
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    45 months ago

    I’m so fucking lucky! It’s awesome! Yeah Shelbyville! Eat all of our shorts!