Americans feel more warmly towards all religious groups than a few years back

Despite a divisive election year in which identity politics came to the fore, Americans are more tolerant of people of all religions than they were in 2014.

That is the finding of the latest Pew Research Center survey into perceptions of religious groups.

Respondents were asked to rate each faith on a thermometer scale of 0-100, with 0 being the coolest feeling towards them and 100 the warmest. Each faith then got an average score based on responses.

And positive feelings to Muslims (rising from 40 to 48) atheists (41 to 50) and Hindus (50 to 58) rose the most during that period, even though Americans still feel coolest towards Muslims and atheists out of any faith (and non-faith).

The warmest feelings are towards Jews (67 rating), Catholics (66) and mainline protestants (63).

The increase in warm feelings came from people of all backgrounds, including both Democrats and Republicans, young and old, men and women and from all denominations.

But there remain differences in attitudes to faiths depending on age. Young people, for example, tend to view Muslims and atheists more warmly than old people, who have cooler attitudes to both.

In fact, the significant rise overall in positive feelings towards Muslims is pretty much attributable to the 18-29 generation, who have vastly warmer opinions of those practicing that faith than older people.

Older people, particularly those over the age of 65, have warmer feelings towards Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Evangelical Christians.

When it's broken down by religious group, every faith has the warmest feeling towards people of their own faith, obviously.

The lowest ratings were 29, given by atheists about Evangelical Christians and 33, given by Evangelical Christians about atheists.

And politically, Democrats have the coolest feelings towards Mormons (though it's up to 52 compared to 44 in 2014) while Republicans have the coolest feelings towards Muslims (though this is up to 39 from 33 in 2014).

Democrats feel warmest towards Jews, and Republicans feel warmest to Evangelical Christians.

You can take a look at more analysis and findings from the report here.