The US Census Bureau has not asked Americans about religion since the 1950s, but some data had been collected by the federal government about a century earlier. Federal and assistant marshals who acted as census takers until the Civil War collected data from religious leaders and clergy members on the number of churches, their religion, as well as seating and property values. According to the 2010 Censes Analysis Journal, the Census Bureau was only permitted to ask questions about religious practices on a voluntary basis in some population and household surveys (US Censes, 2010). Only the information collected on religion and churches concerns economic data or places of worship and structures managed by the church. The U.S. Bureau of Censorship does not have much on the religious affiliation of Americans since it is prohibited by public law; 94-521. Prevents the US Census Bureau from asking questions regarding religious affiliation on a mandatory basis, so the Census Bureau does not provide the source of the data on religion and therefore the information obtained was retrieved from religious organizations. Since 1999, approximately 168 million Americans identified with a certain religious group, and the majority of these, 158 million, claimed to be Christian, while the remainder of the group were 5.8 million Jews, 3 million Muslims, and the remainder constituted the remaining percentage. Hinduism is among the oldest Eastern religions and has a great influence on Western civilization and over the years has given rise to some cults and religious movements. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, recognition of Hindu culture in America had increasingly increased among religious schools, although… halfway through the document… the regions want to create a common understanding. Works Cited Gordon Melton J. and Jones A. Constance, Conference Paper on Reflections on Hindu Demographics in America: An Initial Report on the Early American Hindu Census. (2011) April 7. Washington, DCJenkins Philip, The Next Christianity. The Atlantic, Volume 290, No. 3 (October 2002) Muslim population growth, fight against radical Islam. Available at: http://www.radicalislam.org/threat/population-threat/population-growthSergio DellaPergio, World Jewish Population Report; University of Connecticut Jewish Database.2010.Berman, Institute North American.US ​​Censes, A Brief History of Religion and the US Censes; Analysis January 26, 2010. Available at http://pewforum.org/Government/A-Brief-History-of-Religion-and-the-US--Census.aspx.Wright John, The New York Times. (2002) Routledge Almanac.