The Anglican Church (later the Episcopal Church), whose members founded and populated Virginia Colony in the early days, was the established church during the colonial period. The first dissenters to arrive were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in the late 17th century; they were followed by large numbers of German Lutherans, Welsh Baptists, and English Quakers, who settled in the Valley of Virginia in the early 18th century. The general assembly's adoption in 1785 of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, disestablished the Episcopal Church and made religious toleration the norm in Virginia. Although the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches retained the allegiance of the landed gentry during the 19th century, the Methodists and Baptists became the largest church groups in the state.
Protestant denominations combined had the greatest number of known adherents in 2000, when the leading groups were the Southern Baptist Convention, with 774,673 adherents; the United Methodist Church, 470,381; the Presbyterian Church USA, 135,435; and the Episcopal Church, 126,874. As of 2000, there were 606,059 Roman Catholics in Virginia, representing a membership growth of 57% from 1990. The Jewish population was estimated at 76,140 and there were an estimated 51,021 Muslims. Over 4.1 million people (about 58.4% of the population) were not counted as members of any religious organization.