Shoes are optional at my home (Australia). I don’t wear them inside generally but am not offended of anyone else does. That being said, most people take them off at the front door. Shoes that is.
Optional. Sometimes I have them on, sometimes I have them off in my own home. Depends on what is comfortable. With two kids and a dog, there is no saving of the carpet anyway.
I hate being a guest at a party and being required to take my shoes off. Sometimes they make the outfit. Sometimes I have a hole in my sock that the shoe covers nicely. For me, being a host is about making your guests comfortable, not about protecting your carpet.
I do think this is very regional, and someone said early that shoes are a sure sign of civilization - I think that’s were my “shoes are worn at a party” thing comes from. If you want to take your shoes off in my house and that makes you comfortable, fine (please do not remove your snowy, icky shoes and leave them dripping on my carpet or wood floor - put them on the shoe rug.) But I feel sort of undressed if I’m not wearing shoes around strangers. To some extent its like a swimsuit - I’ll wear a swimsuit around people I know - invite me to a pool party with strangers and I’ll be throwing a swim skirt around my waist, not everyone needs to get that good a look at my ass.
When I was growing up, one neighbor (my best friend’s house) had a rule about absolutely no shoes in the house by anyone at any time. My mother used to take this as a sign that the woman thought she was better than all the rest of us, and that she had problems…this was the same woman who had gained a reputation in the neighborhood for wearing out the enamel on their bathroom sink by scrubbing it so much in the first year. So for my whole life, I was used to wearing shoes in the house. We were expected to wipe our feet in the entryway on the rug there.
But once I got my own home, I discovered I really hated wearing shoes in the house all day, so off they come at the door…but only if I’m going to be home for a while. If we’re going in and out, shoes can stay on. Anyone who wants to leave their shoes on, may. Anyone who wants to take them off, may. Guests staying less than overnight keep their shoes on…bare feet are too intimate for company. But if I’m home for the day and sitting down to eat or watch TV, the shoes are off. Can’t stretch out on the sofa in shoes!
For me it’s not so much an attempt to keep floors clean, but a comfort issue. Shoeless feet are quieter, and shoes hurt my feet, and I want them off! My arthritis is happier in bare feet. And I generally only wear shoes I can slip on and off, so taking them on and off isn’t time-consuming. Even my tennis shoes that tie, I slip on and off without retying.
But my elderly mother still sticks to the shoes on until bedtime rule. She has severe arthritis in her feet, and she walks better in shoes. And she prefers shoes that fasten securely, and bending over to fasten them is a real effort, so once they are on, they are on. Plus she feels that socks get dirty too easily unless they are in shoes, and to her dirty socks are a bigger sin, since you should be sweeping and mopping your floors regularly and wiping your feet on the mat.
Needless to say, since we are now sharing a house, she hates my pile of shoes at the door.
Most dwellings I go to, including mine, are shoes-off. We don’t get wound into a knot about it, though; most people I knpw are fairly easy-going about it.
I usually take my shoes off at work.
Does that count?
I grew up in Texas, have many relatives in West Virginia, and now live in California. In all of those places, shoes-on was/is the norm among the people I lived with or visited with any regularity. Much like Gary T, I was never exposed to a shoes-off home until fairly late in life - sometime in my 20’s. My wife’s experiences are similar.
So you can probably guess that ours is a shoes-on home.
enipla’s habits sound similar to mine: I put on my shoes in the morning, and they generally do not come off again until I’m settled for the night (changes of clothes excepted, of course). Shoes and socks are generally put on or taken off at the same time - I very rarely walk around in my socks at home, I just realized; it’s either fully-shod or barefoot.
Probably because I rarely need to remove my shoes during the day, I put 'em on but good - habitually double-knotting the laces (for some damn reason, they tend to work loose on me if I don’t). It’s a bit of effort to take them off, but like I said this is just fine within the usual demands of my lifestyle. Were I in a situation where I wanted or needed to remove them more frequently, I’d probably change my tying habits.
We do know a few people who maintain shoes-off homes, and we go along with that practice when we visit them. Whether I feel I’m being polite, respecting their property, or humoring their eccentricity often depends on my mood at the time. 
I keep a pair of clean flip flips by the door and change into them when I get home (in the winter, I use slippers). But I wouldn’t ask a guest to remove their shoes unless they were obviously muddy.
My husband is from India and, according to him, shoes are usually taken off before entering a house. I seem to recall from our last visit to the Hindu temple before we were married that they’re also taken off in places of worship and often washed prior to entering the temple.
Regardless, both of us usually take our shoes off when entering the house, mostly out of habit. We automatically take our son’s shoes off, too. It’s more comfortable - for us anyway, you’re less likely to track dirt in and it has become almost one of those things you do when you’re finally home and get to start unwinding. It’s almost like having a glass of wine at the end of the day, only it doesn’t make us hung over.
But we don’t require other people to take their shoes off when they come in unless their shoes are covered with mud or something (we have light-colored carpets throughout the house and white carpets in the living and dining rooms).
It’s a regional thing and an Asian thing for us. We don’t wear our shoes in the house, and the people that know us well know when they come over they are expected to wear something they can slip off easily. I won’t even wear my shoes much past the door - we have a shoerack right there.
Casual guests? I never ask them to take off their shoes (but I will offer), but I don’t like shoed people in my kitchen. Waaaaaay too much cultural influence going on there - in Indian culture you never wear your shoes in the kitchen. It squicks me out, and that is the only place I will clean after they leave if they wear their shoes in there.
In Chinese households the lady of the house always keeps slippers by the door. Indian people tend to walk around barefoot or in Bata slippers.
Now, again. Why do you care? I mean, it’s my house, and I’m certainly not inviting you over. (I mean, because I don’t know you.)
“Squicks”? 
We’re a shoes off house. It bugs me when people wear shoes inside - why? I have no idea. The dirt. Germs. And I guess it seems too formal. The only person who I was okay with wearing shoes in my house was my Dad, but he had to have special braces on his shoes and (in later years) had difficulties walking without his special shoes on.
My brother in law will not take his shoes off when he comes into my house. Just flat out says no. So when he comes over we’ll hang out in the kitchen, but go no further than that. My roommate knows shoes bug me, so he will wear them around the house to irk me. Usually, though, he will stop just inside the kitchen and lean through the entrance of the living room without actually coming into the living room. The kitchen gets swept every day and mopped a few times per week.
The only time I am okay with shoes in the house is if we’re having a bunch of people over for a party or whatever. I wouldn’t presume to make a bunch of people de-shoe even if it does make my right eye twitch a bit. Once everyone leaves the house is thoroughly swept/vaccuumed/mopped.
If I go into someone else’s house where shoes are worn I have a hard time being comfortable. I often end up hanging out in the doorway.
I’m guessing you do have an idea: (1) the dirt, (2) the germs, (3) seems too formal.
Shoes are also removed at
Raj Ghat, the site of Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral pyre.
In my visit to northern India, the only temple where feet were washed before entering was the Sikh Gurdwara.
Taking off my shoes is for me some sort of inner signal that I am done for the day. TV, reading or bed but that’s about it.
When I get home from work, I still have plenty to do. Taking off my shoes just doesn’t feel right. And it’s a pain if I have to go outside for whatever reason.
Flat feet here. Every step barefoot is a huge impact on my ankles, knees, hips, & back. A vacuum will pick up any dirt left by my shoes. My body is more important.
In our house, it’s shoes off in the winter (and changing into slippers or mocassins at the door), while summer is optional. I tend to take mine off no matter the season, because I just feel more comfortable barefoot or in mocs.
For me the main difference is the degree of mud, snow and salt that gets tracked in, depending on the season. Growing up in Canada, an additional consideration was those big snow boots we used to wear. They were too hot to keep on inside, so we always brought an extra pair of shoes or mocassins to change into indoors. I even had a special little shoe bag to carry them in.
The only time I ask guests to remove their shoes is if they are muddy, wet or salty. I am happy to provide fuzzy slippers if they want. 
Dog feet get wiped off in the entryway if they are muddy. I get tired of cleaning the hardwood floors.
Wearing shoes in one’s home is very weird to me but hey - whatever floats your boat. However, wearing shoes in a place of worship is even weirder. The idea of wearing shoes in a mosque/temple/church is just loopy… but I guess it is normal in churches… does anyone take their shoes off in churches?
I didn’t say you did. That was entirely my hyperbole.
In all of the churches that I’ve been to, the floors are made for walking on with shoes with durable materials, such as brick or stone. Although I feel more comfortable without shoes while indoors, it is not generally accepted to take one’s shoes off in church. (Not that I go to church anymore…)
I prefer not to wear shoes in general, and I generally don’t wear shoes indoors. When it’s cold outside, I’ll don a pair of socks or slippers (I own ones that are kind of “slipper socks” with a Mary Jane styling to a woven sock with side buttons) to keep my feet warm. I won’t, however, take off my shoes in someone’s house if it seems to make them uncomfortable. The thing is, I don’t recall visiting anyone’s house where it visibly made them uncomfortable to have me take off my shoes and leave them neatly arranged by the front door. I don’t care that much about what people do with their shoes when they enter my own house, but it’s nice when they wander around barefoot as well.
It probably has to do with the weather.
In nice places where people go outside, people have comfortable shoes and it would be highly annoying to have to take off and put on shoes dozens of times per day. It is also a little weird to me to use the bathroom at someone else’s house with bare feet.
In not-nice places where people huddle inside for protection, people have uncomfortable boots and rarely leave a house once they enter. In this case, it only makes sense to take off one’s shoes.