San Antonio, Texas is a city with a deep-rooted religious history. Home to thousands of congregations of different faiths and active interfaith relationships, it is no surprise that the city has a unique religious demographic. To gain a better understanding of the beliefs and practices of San Antonio's spiritual leaders, the challenges they face, and the impact of religion on the local population, we take a closer look at the religious demographics of this vibrant city. According to QuickFacts, the most common workgroups in San Antonio are office administrative support occupations (96,575 people), sales-related occupations (76,628 people) and management occupations (59,353 people).
The average household has two cars, which is similar to the national average. Property taxes in San Antonio are comparable to its main and neighboring geographies. The percentage of uninsured people in San Antonio has decreased over time compared to the percentage of people enrolled in various types of health insurance. None of the households in San Antonio reported that they spoke a language other than English at home as their primary shared language.
The largest universities in San Antonio by number of degrees awarded are the University of Texas at San Antonio (2,902 (7,563 and 23.5%)), San Antonio College (3,901 and 12.1%) and Northwest Vista College (3,227 and 10%). The majority of people living in San Antonio are Christian (21% have no religious affiliation). Despite the challenges, the Scientology community in San Antonio has helped many individuals resolve personal issues and even saved some marriages thanks to Scientology counseling. There are currently 55 congregations in San Antonio, five of which were established within the last two years. People are increasingly busy with their lives and are getting lost in the modern materialistic world; thus spending less time on their culture and religion.
In a city with such a strong religious history, we take a deeper look at what it means to believe and what are the greatest threats to religion today through the eyes of San Antonio's spiritual leaders.