On a lark I decided to see how Catholics & Protestants broke down in regards to evolution by American region in the GSS. Specifically, I clustered the Census Divisions to create the categories of:
Northeast = New England + Mid Atlantic
Midwest = E & W North Central
South = S Atlantic + E South Central + W South Central
West = Mountain + Pacific
I limited the data to non-Hispanic whites for the question “evolved,” which was asked in 2006 and 2008, so recently. Results below the fold for this question….
| Protestant | Catholic | No Religion | |
| Humans Beings Developed From Animals (True) | |||
| Northeast | 60 | 66.8 | 90.3 |
| Midwest | 37.2 | 67.7 | 77.8 |
| South | 30.6 | 59 | 82.8 |
| West | 36.5 | 71.5 | 86.5 |
I assume few are surprised that Catholics accept evolution at a higher rate than Protestants, this is evident in many polls going back decades. Rather, the interesting point is that the Northeast does not exhibit much religious polarization on this question, while every other region does. The Catholic – Protestant difference for each region is:
Northeast – 6.8
Midwest – 30.5
South – 28.4
West – 35
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