More white evangelicals in the US believe they face discrimination against them than believe Muslims face discrimination, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

PRRI found 57 per cent of white evangelicals believe Christians are discriminated against. In contrast, just 44 per cent believe Muslims face discrimination.

White evangelicals are the only major religious group in which a majority say Christians face a lot of discrimination.

By contrast, around three-quarters of religiously unaffiliated Americans (77 per cent) and non-white Protestants (75 per cent), and more than six in 10 white Catholics and white mainline Protestants agree Muslims face a lot of discrimination.

Fewer than half of non-white Protestants (40 per cent), white mainline Protestants (30 per cent), white Catholics (26 per cent) and religiously unaffiliated Americans (23 per cent) say Christians experience a lot of discrimination.

The figure showing 44 per cent of white evangelicals believe Muslims face discrimination represents a fall from previous surveys. According to America Now, one previous figure was 59 per cent, or nearly six in ten. This had fallen to 56 per cent by October 2016. However, it notes PRRI used a smaller sample size.

The PRRI poll also showed a split along political lines, with Democrats more than four times as likely to say Muslims (85 per cent) face a lot of discrimination as to say the same of Christians (21 per cent). Republicans, in contrast, are about equally as likely to say both Christians (48 per cent) and Muslims (45 per cent) experience a lot of discrimination in the US today.