America may be a religious society, but levels of religious knowledge among Americans is low, according to a new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The poll is similar to ones commissioned by The Iona Institute in 2007.

The Pew Forum asked 3,400 Americans in a telephone survey to answer 32 questions about their religious knowledge. On average, their answers were correct only 50 percent of the time.

Among the topics covered in the survey were: Where was Jesus born? What is Ramadan? Whose writings inspired the Protestant Reformation? Which Biblical figure led the exodus from Egypt? What religion is the Dalai Lama? Joseph Smith? Mother Teresa? In most cases, the format was multiple choice.

American Catholics were among the least well informed. Only 33 per cent of American Catholics could name the authors of the four Gospels, while only 45 per cent knew that the Church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine in Holy Communion are not merely symbols, but actually become the Body and Blood of Christ.

More than half, or 53 percent of American Protestants could not correctly identify Martin Luther as the historical figure whose writing and teaching inspired the Protestant Reformation.

A similar study conducted on behalf of the Iona Institute in Ireland in 2007 revealed that only five per cent of people aged 15 to 24 could name the first commandment. The survey involved a representative sample of 950 people nationwide.

The survey, conducted by Lansdowne Marketing Research, also showed that nearly one-third in this age group (32 per cent) could not say where Jesus was born and more than one-third (35 per cent) did not know what is celebrated at Easter.

However, overall, Irish Catholics tend to have a better level of knowledge than their US counterparts. For example, 66 per cent of Irish people could name the authors of the four Gospels.

The Pew survey revealed that Americans who either do not believe in God or are not sure if God exists scored the highest in their answers. Atheists and agnostics correctly answered about 21 of the 32 questions, followed by Jews and Mormons, who each had about 20 correct answers.

According to data, the US is one of the most religious nations among the world’s developed countries. About 60 percent of American adults say religion is “very important” in their lives.

On questions about the Bible and Christianity, the groups that answered the most correctly were Mormons and white evangelical Protestants.