According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, Christians make up most of the newly sworn-in 114<sup>th US Congress.
Out of the 535 members of the new House and Senate who took their oaths of office this week, 491 - 92 per cent - are Christians. Of this number, 57 per cent are Protestants and 31 per cent are Catholics.
The figures are roughly the same as in the 113<sup>th Congress.
USA Today reports that among the 79 Baptists in the legislative body is the new Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, while among the 164 Catholics are House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Congress also has 16 Mormons, one of which is Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.
According to Pew, two in ten Americans say they are religiously unaffiliated, but Kyrsten Sinema, the representative from Arizona's 9th District, is the only one among the members of the Congress to say she does not subscribe to any religion.
Like Sinema, Rep Lee Zeldin of New York's 1st District is the sole Jewish Republican in the new Congress.
Pew also reports that many of the smaller religious groups in the US are represented in roughly equal proportion to their numbers among American adults.
The study states, "Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus combined represent roughly 2% of American adults and 1% of Congress. Jews continue to have greater representation in Congress (5%) than in the population as a whole (2%)."
The 301 Republicans in the 114<sup>th Congress, who now control both chambers of the legislative body, are largely Protestant (67 per cent). Only 27 per cent are Catholics and 5 per cent are Mormons.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are more diverse. Of the 234 Democrats in the new Congress, 104 are Protestant, 83 are Catholic, 27 are Jewish, two are Mormon, two are Buddhist, two are Muslim, one is Hindu and one is not affiliated with a particular religion.
