The Church of England was the established church in colonial Georgia. During this period, European Protestants were encouraged to immigrate and German Lutherans and Moravians took advantage of the opportunity. Roman Catholics were barred and Jews were not welcomed, but persons of both denominations came anyway. In the mid-18th century, George Whitefield, called the Great Itinerant, helped touch off the Great Awakening, the religious revival out of which came the Methodist and Baptist denominations. Daniel Marshall, the first "separate" Baptist in Georgia, established a church near Kiokee Creek in 1772. Some 16 years later, James Asbury formed the first Methodist Conference in Georgia.
The American Revolution resulted in the lessening of the authority of Anglicanism and a great increase in the number of Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. During the 19th century, fundamentalist sects were especially strong among blacks. Roman Catholics from Maryland, Ireland, and Hispaniola formed a numerically small but important element in the cities, and Jewish citizens were active in the leadership of Savannah and Augusta. Catholics and Jews enjoyed general acceptance from the early 1800s until the first two decades of the 20th century, when they became the targets of political demagogues, notably Thomas E. Watson.
In 2000, most of the religious adherents in the state were Evangelical Protestants with the Southern Baptist Convention claiming 1,719,484 adherents in about 3,233 congregations. Mainline Protestants included 570,674 United Methodists, 105,774 USA Presbyterians, and 71,950 Episcopalians. Catholic adherents numbered about 374,185. Judaism claimed about 93,500 adherents and there were about 38,882 Muslims. Only 16 Buddhist and 15 Hindu congregations were reported, without membership numbers. About 55.2% of the population were not counted as members of any religious organization.