As of 2020, according to the
Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, 56% of the city's residents were adherents of a religious body. The largest tradition represented was
Evangelical Protestantism (15% of total population), followed by
Catholicism (12%),
Black Protestantism (10%),
Mainline Protestantism (10%),
Judaism (3%),
Orthodox Christianity (2%),
Buddhism (1%), and
Islam (1%), with several other groups numbering less than 1%. Mainline Protestants were the largest group in 2010, Catholics in 2000, and Black Protestants in 1990. The city is populated with many religious buildings, including
Washington National Cathedral,
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which comprises the
largest Catholic church building in the United States, and the
Islamic Center of Washington, which was the largest
mosque in the Western Hemisphere when it opened in 1957.
St. John's Episcopal Church, located off
Lafayette Square, has held services for every
U.S. president since
James Madison. The
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, built in 1908, is a
synagogue located in the
Chinatown section of the city. The
Washington D.C. Temple is a
temple of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located just outside the city in
Kensington, Maryland. Viewable from the
Capital Beltway, the temple is the tallest temple of the church in existence, and is the third-largest by square footage.
