Religion

The region’s earliest settlers may have been strict English Protestants, but due to waves of immigrants from French Canada, Italy, Ireland—and most recently, from Latin and South America—Catholics are now far and away New England’s largest religious group.

The most popular branches of Protestantism (members of which make up roughly one-third of the area’s population) are Episcopalian, Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal. Meanwhile, one of the world’s most sizeable concentrations of practicing Jews calls Massachusetts [1] home, and groups of the liberal-minded Unitarian Universalist church can also be spotted throughout New England. Sizeable Muslim and Hindu populations can be found in many of the region’s cities.