Metropolitan Religious Landscape
The San Francisco metropolitan area has a distinctive religious profile combining a large religiously unaffiliated population with substantial Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and other religious communities. Its religious institutions reflect long-established Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Latino, Filipino, African American and other communities, as well as newer immigrant populations. Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study estimates that 43% of adults in the San Francisco metro area identify as Christian, 14% identify with other religions, 42% are religiously unaffiliated, and 1% did not answer the religious-identification question.
Religious-Affiliation Breakdown
Pew RLS 2023-24Percentages represent adult population survey estimates for the metropolitan area.
| Religious Group | Share (%) | Subgroups & Community Context |
|---|---|---|
| Evangelical Protestant | 7% |
|
| Mainline Protestant | 9% |
|
| Historically Black Protestant | 3% |
|
| Roman Catholic | 24% |
|
| Orthodox Christian | 1% |
|
| Jehovah's Witness | 1% |
|
| Other Christian | 0.5% |
|
| Jewish | 2% |
|
| Muslim | 1% |
|
| Buddhist | 3% |
|
| Hindu | 4% |
|
| Other World Religions | 0.5% |
|
| Other Religious Identifications | 1% |
|
| Religiously Unaffiliated | 42% |
|
| Did Not Answer | 1% |
|
📈 10-Year Demographic Trend (2014 vs. 2023-24)
Religiously unaffiliated adults increased from 35% of the San Francisco metro area in Pew's 2014 Religious Landscape Study to 42% in the 2023-24 study. The comparison should be interpreted cautiously because Pew changed its survey methodology between the two studies.
Regional & Geographic Distribution
San Francisco
San Francisco contains longstanding Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu and other religious institutions. The city's history of Chinese and Japanese immigration is especially important to its Buddhist and other Asian religious institutions.
East Bay
Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont and surrounding East Bay communities contain a broad range of Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and Jewish institutions. Fremont is particularly important for South Asian religious and cultural organizations.
South Bay and Silicon Valley
Santa Clara, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and neighboring communities have substantial South Asian populations and numerous Hindu, Sikh and Muslim institutions. The area also has established Buddhist, Christian and Jewish communities.
Peninsula and Marin County
The Peninsula and Marin communities contain Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and other religious institutions, including congregations serving both long-established residents and newer immigrant communities.
Notable Houses of Worship & Faith Centers
Major active community institutions, historic landmarks, and diaspora centers across the metropolitan area:
🛕 Hindu Temples
- Shiva-Vishnu Temple – Livermore, California
- Fremont Hindu Temple – Fremont, California
- BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir – Milpitas, California
- Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir – San Jose area
🕌 Mosques
- Islamic Center of Northern California – Santa Clara area
- Muslim Community Association – Santa Clara, California
- Islamic Center of Fremont – Fremont, California
- Islamic Center of San Francisco – San Francisco, California
⚔️ Sikh Gurdwaras
- Gurdwara Sahib of Fremont – Fremont, California
- San Jose Gurdwara – San Jose, California
- Sikh Gurdwara of Stockton – Stockton, California
☸️ Buddhist Temples
- San Francisco Zen Center – San Francisco
- Buddhist Church of San Francisco – San Francisco
- Kong Chow Temple – San Francisco Chinatown
- Berkeley Buddhist Temple – Berkeley, California
⛪ Christian Churches
- Grace Cathedral – San Francisco
- Mission Dolores Basilica – San Francisco
- Glide Memorial Church – San Francisco
✡️ Synagogues
- Congregation Emanu-El – San Francisco
- Temple Sinai – Oakland, California
- Congregation Beth Jacob – Redwood City, California
Verified Address & Facility Notes
• San Francisco Zen Center was established in 1962 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and his American students. The organization currently operates three practice communities: City Center in San Francisco, Green Gulch Farm in Marin County and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.
• The Stockton Gurdwara site states that Sikhs purchased land in South Stockton in 1912 to establish a gurdwara. The organization describes itself as the first Gurdwara Sahib in the United States. Stockton is included here only as a California-wide Sikh historical reference, not as part of the San Francisco MSA.
• The Buddhist Church of San Francisco is part of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist tradition and represents the historic Japanese American Buddhist presence in the city.
Key Demographic & Cultural Facts
- Pew's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study estimates that 42% of adults in the San Francisco metro area are religiously unaffiliated: 12% atheist, 9% agnostic and 21% with no religion in particular.
- Catholics account for 24% of adults in the current Pew San Francisco metro profile, making Catholicism the largest single named religious affiliation.
- Hinduism is estimated at 4% and Buddhism at 3% of San Francisco metro adults in the current Pew profile, giving both traditions a substantial presence relative to many other large U.S. metropolitan areas.
- The current Pew profile estimates Jewish adults at 2% and Muslim adults at 1% of the San Francisco metropolitan adult population.
- The 2025 Census-derived population estimate for the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley MSA is 4,630,041.
- San Francisco Zen Center was established in 1962 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and his American students. It became an important center for Soto Zen practice in the United States.
- Stockton Gurdwara was established in 1912 and describes itself as the first gurdwara in the United States. Stockton is in California's Central Valley and is not part of the San Francisco metropolitan statistical area.
- The San Francisco metro area's religious diversity cannot be represented accurately by the nine-county Bay Area population because the federal MSA used by Pew is a different geographic unit.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Pew's 2023-24 San Francisco metro estimates have a margin of error of approximately ±6.8 percentage points.
- The percentages describe adults in the San Francisco metropolitan area, not all residents including children.
- Pew reports some very small categories as less than 1%. Any 0.5% values in this entry are display conventions and should not be interpreted as precise measurements.
- The individual categories may not sum exactly to 100% in the original Pew tables because of rounding and less-than-1% categories.
- The 2023-24 survey used a different collection method from the 2014 study, so the historical comparison should be treated as a broad directional comparison.
- The U.S. Census Bureau does not collect religious affiliation in the decennial census; religious composition therefore comes from surveys and specialized studies.
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