Irreligion in the United States

Last updated

Religion in the United States by personal self-identification (2023 The Economist /YouGov survey) [1]

Contents

   Protestant (30%)
   Catholic (21%)
  Unaffiliated (20%)
   Atheism (7%)
   Agnostic (4%)
   LDS (2%)
  Eastern Orthodox (1%)
   Jewish (2%)
   Muslim (2%)
   Buddhist (1%)
  Other (10%)

In the United States, between 4% and 15% of citizens demonstrated nonreligious attitudes and naturalistic worldviews, namely atheists or agnostics. [2] [3] [4] [5] The number of self-identified atheists and agnostics was around 4% each, while many persons formally affiliated with a religion are likewise non-believing. [6] [7] [8] [2]

The percentage of Americans without religious affiliation, often labeled as "Nones", is around 20-29%. According to Gallup, the "None" answer to "religious preference" has grown from 2% in 1948 to 22% in 2023. [9] "Other" and "No answer" have been somewhat stable.People who identify as "nothing in particular" accounting for much of the growth of this demographic. [9] All the subgroups that together make up the religious “nones” have grown over time. [10] The atheist subgroup had been somewhat stable for decades. [11] Most of the increase in the unaffiliated comes from people who had weak or no commitment to religion in the first place, not from people who had a religious commitment. [3] : 8  Still, "Nones" is an unclear category. [12] [13] It is a heterogenous group of the not religious and intermittently religious. [14] Researchers argue that most of the "Nones" should be considered "unchurched", rather than objectively nonreligious; [13] [15] [16] [3] [4] especially since most "Nones" do hold some religious-spiritual beliefs and a notable amount participate in behaviors. [13] [17] [15] [18] [19] For example, 72% of American "Nones" believe in God or a Higher Power. [20] [21] [22] The majority of the "Nones" are not nonbelievers. [23] The "None" response is more of an indicator for lacking affiliation than an active measure for irreligiosity, and a majority of the "Nones" can either be conventionally religious or "spiritual". [24] [15] [25]

Social scientists observe that nonreligious Americans are characterized by indifference. [26] Very few incorporate active irreligion as part of their identity, and only about 1-2% join groups promoting such values. [26]

Demographics

A 2007 Barna group poll found that about 20 million people say they are atheist, have no religious faith, or are agnostic, with 5 million of that number claiming to be atheists. The study also found that "[t]hey tend to be more educated, more affluent and more likely to be male and unmarried than those with active faith" and that "only 6 percent of people over 60 have no faith in God, and one in four adults ages 18 to 22 describe themselves as having no faith." [27]

In the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) report, 15% of the US population identified as having "no religion", almost double the 1990 figure. [28]

Irreligiosity is often under-reported in American surveys; many more express lack of faith in God or have alternative views on God (e.g. deism), than those who self-identify as atheists, agnostics and the like. [28] In 2012, 23% of religious affiliates did not consider themselves to be "religious", though this is subjective. [29] [30] The number of atheists and agnostics found in common surveys tends to be quite low since, for instance, according to the 2019 Pew Research Center survey they were 3.1% and 4% respectively [7] and according to the 2014 General Social Survey they were 4% and 5% respectively. [31] However, their self-identification and actual views on God do differ since one study observed that out of people who did not believe in God or a universal spirit, only 24% actually self-identified as "atheists" and 15% as "agnostics". [6] In one 2018 research paper using indirect probabilistic methods with considerable uncertainty estimated that 26% of Americans are atheists, which is much higher than the 3%-11% rates that are consistently found in surveys. [32]

A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center reported that, of the U.S. adult population, 19.6% had no religious affiliation and an additional 16% identified as "neither spiritual nor religious". [33] [30] Furthermore, atheists made up 2.4% and agnostics made up 3.3% of the US population. It also notes that a third of adults under the age of 30 are religiously unaffiliated. However, out of the religiously unaffiliated demographic: the majority describe themselves either as a religious (18%) or as spiritual but not religious (37%) while a significant minority (42%) considers themselves neither spiritual nor religious. Additionally, out of the unaffiliated: 68% believe in God, 12% are atheists, 17% are agnostics and overall 21% of the religiously unaffiliated pray every day. [34]

The Pew Religious Landscape survey reported that as of 2014, 22.8% of the U.S. population is religiously unaffiliated, atheists made up 3.1% and agnostics made up 4% of the U.S. population. [35] Out of all Americans who identify as unaffiliated including atheists and agnostics, 41% were raised Protestant and 28% were raised Catholic according to the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape survey. [36] The 2022 General Social Survey found that of Americans with no religion, 40% were raised Protestant and 25% were raised Catholic. [37] A 2023 PRRI survey found that 51% of unaffiliated Americans were formerly Protestant while 35% were formerly Catholic. [38]

The 2014 General Social Survey reported that 21% of Americans had no religion with 3% being atheist and 5% being agnostic. [31]

Some 20% of Americans considered themselves neither religious nor spiritual. Irreligiousness is highest among young, white, unmarried, educated males. [39] [40] [41]

When asked, around a third (24%-34% in different years) answered they were "not religious", and another 8% as atheist. [42] Many of these identify/affiliate themselves with established religious groups and most believe in God. [41] [43] In one survey, 88% considered themselves as at least moderately spiritual. [40]

According to the 2014 General Social Survey the percentages of the US population that identified as no religion were 21% in 2014, 20% in 2012, just 14% in 2000, and only 8 percent in 1990. Furthermore, the number of atheists and agnostics in the US has remained relatively flat in the past 23 years since in 1991 only 2% identified as atheist and 4% identified as agnostic while in 2014 only 3% identified as atheist and 5% identified as agnostic. [31]

According to the 2008 Pew Religious Landscape report, as 2007, 16.1% of the US population identified as "no religion", atheists made up 1.6% and agnostics made up 2.4% of the US population. [44]

According to a 2012 Pew Report on the "Nones", 19.6% of the population identified as "no religion", atheists made up 2.4% and agnostics made up 3.3% of the US population. [45]

The Pew Religious Landscape survey reported that as of 2014, 22.8% of the American population is religiously unaffiliated, atheists made up 3.1% and agnostics made up 4% of the US population. [35]

A 2010 Pew Research Center study comparing Millennials to other generations showed that of those between 18 and 29 years old, only 3% self-identified as "atheists" and only 4% as "agnostics". Overall, 25% of Millennials were "Nones" and 74% were religiously affiliated. [46] Though Millennials are less religious than previous generations at the same age frame, they are also much less engaged in many social institutions in general than previous generations. [30]

According to the American Values Atlas from PPRI, 24% of the US Population was unaffiliated with a religion in 2017. [47]

According to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, 31% were "nones" in 2016 [48] and 29.5% were "nones" in 2018. [49]

According to a Pew study, 7% of those raised Protestant are now unaffiliated whereas 4% of those raised Catholic are now unaffiliated. [50]

In 2019, a Pew study found that 65% of American adults described themselves as Christians while the religiously unaffiliated, including atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular", is 26%. [51]

According to a 2018 Pew report, 72% of the "Nones" have belief in God, a higher power, or spiritual force. [52] A 2024 Pew survey found that 28% of Americans are unaffiliated. [53] Estimates of the population with no religion range to almost a hundred million. [54]

Several groups promoting irreligion – including the Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Atheists, Camp Quest, and the Rational Response Squad – have witnessed large increases in membership numbers in recent years, and the number of nonreligious student organizations at American colleges and universities increased during the 2000s (decade). [27] [55] However, the growth of atheist groups is very limited and will possibly shrink due to atheists normally being non-joiners. [56] The overwhelming majority of the nonreligious in the US do not express their convictions in any manner, and only a negligible percentage joins irreligious organizations. [56] As such, the overwhelming majority on the nonreligious do not join secular groups. Only a very small minority of the nonreligious, around 1% to 2%, actually join these kinds of groups. [56]

Some of the underlying factors in the increases in people identifying as "Nones" seem to not be that significant numbers of people are dropping religion, but rather that, in recent times, it has become more socially acceptable for younger and older generations to identify as a "None" than in previous decades, when identifying as having no religion carried negative stigmas. With young people usually having lower religious observance than older people and them feeling more comfortable identifying as a "None", generational replacement factors could play a role in the increment. [57]

Other possible driving factors may be just broader general cultural changes in the American way of life. The growth of the internet and social media has altered the sense of community and spirituality and the growth of self-focused citizenry, as opposed to community-focused citizenry, has broadly led to less civic involvement and less loyalty to many public institutions. [58]

Other possible driving forces could be political backlash. Young adults, in particular, have turned away from organized religion because they perceive it as deeply entangled with conservative politics and some seek to distance themselves from polarized systems. [59]

Others have suggested that delays in marriage, settling down, and having children among younger people reduces or delays the number and commitment of people participating in traditional religions or religious activities. [60]

Robert Fuller argues that the ascendency of science as a way of understanding the world makes it difficult for some people to believe in the supernatural or accept the "blind faith" that religion often requires. [61] That modern biblical scholarship has illuminated the human authorship of the Bible as opposed to divine revelation. [61] And most educated people are aware of the role that cultural conditioning plays in shaping beliefs. [61]

Younger generations as a whole have lost trust and belief in numerous institutions along with religion. For instance, Millennials, which make up about 1/3 the "Nones" demographic, tend to have less belief and trust in institutions such as the labor market, the economy, government and politics, marriage, the media, along with churches; than previous generations. [62] The Nones tend to be more politically liberal and their growth has resulted in some increases in membership of secular organizations. However, the overwhelming majority of those without religion are not joining secular groups or even aligning with secularism. [56]

Secular people in the United States, such as atheist and agnostics, have a distinctive belief system that can be traced for at least hundreds of years. They sometimes create religion-like institutions and communities, create rituals, and debate aspects of their shared beliefs. For these reasons, they are surprisingly religion-like despite often being opposed to religion. [63]

Tables

"Nones" by US state (2014) Nones by state 2014 (Pew Research Religious Landscape Study).png
"Nones" by US state (2014)

Analyzing the 2014 map on the right, New England and the Western United States have the highest proportions of irreligious Americans, while the South and Great Plains have the lowest proportions.

Various beliefs

Various beliefs and practices of the "Nones" in 2012.

Traits % Nones (2012) [64] [65]
Believe in God68%
Consider themselves religious18%
Consider themselves spiritual but not religious37%
Consider themselves as neither spiritual nor religious42%
Pray every day21%
Pray once a month21%

"Nones" by state

RankJurisdiction % "Nones" (2007) [35]  % "Nones" (2014) [35]
– United States 16%23%
01Flag of Vermont.svg  Vermont 34%37%
02Flag of New Hampshire.svg  New Hampshire 29%36%
03Flag of Washington.svg  Washington 23%32%
04Flag of Massachusetts.svg  Massachusetts 20%32%
05Flag of Alaska.svg  Alaska 27%31%
06Flag of Maine.svg  Maine 25%31%
07Flag of Oregon.svg  Oregon 27%31%
08Flag of Montana.svg  Montana 21%30%
09Flag of Colorado.svg  Colorado 25%29%
10Flag of Nevada.svg  Nevada 21%28%
11Flag of Idaho.svg  Idaho 18%27%
12Flag of California.svg  California 21%27%
13Flag of Arizona.svg  Arizona 22%27%
14Flag of New York.svg  New York 17%27%
15Flag of Wyoming.svg  Wyoming 28%26%
16Flag of Hawaii.svg  Hawaii 18%26%
17Flag of Indiana.svg  Indiana 16%26%
18Flag of Wisconsin.svg  Wisconsin 16%25%
19Flag of Washington, D.C.svg  District of Columbia 18%24%
20Flag of Michigan.svg  Michigan 17%24%
21Flag of Florida.svg  Florida 16%24%
22Flag of Delaware.svg  Delaware 19%23%
23Flag of Connecticut.svg  Connecticut 20%23%
24Flag of Maryland.svg  Maryland 16%23%
25Flag of Ohio.svg  Ohio 17%22%
26Flag of Utah.svg  Utah 16%22%
27Flag of Illinois.svg  Illinois 15%22%
28Flag of Kentucky.svg  Kentucky 12%22%
29Flag of New Mexico.svg  New Mexico 21%21%
30Flag of Iowa.svg  Iowa 15%21%
31Flag of Pennsylvania.svg  Pennsylvania 13%21%
32Flag of Rhode Island.svg  Rhode Island 23%20%
33Flag of Nebraska.svg  Nebraska 16%20%
34Flag of Virginia.svg  Virginia 18%20%
35Flag of Missouri.svg  Missouri 16%20%
36Flag of Minnesota.svg  Minnesota 13%20%
37Flag of Kansas.svg  Kansas 14%20%
38Flag of North Carolina.svg  North Carolina 12%20%
39Flag of North Dakota.svg  North Dakota 11%20%
40Flag of South Carolina.svg  South Carolina 10%19%
41Flag of New Jersey.svg  New Jersey 12%18%
42Flag of West Virginia.svg  West Virginia 19%18%
43Flag of South Dakota.svg  South Dakota 12%18%
44Flag of Texas.svg  Texas 12%18%
45Flag of Oklahoma.svg  Oklahoma 12%18%
46 Flag of Georgia (U.S. state).svg Georgia 13%18%
47Flag of Arkansas.svg  Arkansas 13%18%
48Flag of Tennessee.svg  Tennessee 12%14%
49Flag of Mississippi.svg  Mississippi 6%14%
50Flag of Louisiana.svg  Louisiana 8%13%
51Flag of Alabama.svg  Alabama 8%12%

"Nones" by territory

Territories of the United States with percentage of population claiming no religion in 2010.

Territories % Nones (2010)
Flag of the United States Virgin Islands.svg  U.S. Virgin Islands 3.8% [66] or 3.7% [67]
Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico 1.9% [67]
Flag of Guam.svg  Guam 1.7% [68]
Flag of the Northern Mariana Islands.svg  Northern Mariana Islands 1% [69] [70]
Flag of American Samoa.svg  American Samoa 0.7% [71]

"Nones" by region

A region of the western United States known as the "Unchurched Belt" is traditionally considered to contain the highest concentration of irreligious people, although this may have been surpassed by New England. [72]

Regions of the United States ranked by percentage of population claiming no religion in 2014.

Region % Nones (2014) [35]
West28%
Northeast25%
Midwest22%
South19%

"None" demographics

Demographics of the religiously unaffiliated in 2012 (as fraction of the named groups).

Race % Unaffiliated [73]
White 20%
Hispanic 16%
Black 15%
Gender % Unaffiliated
Men 23%
Women 17%
Generation
(years of birth)		 % Unaffiliated
Younger Millennials
(1990–1994)		34%
Older Millennials
(1981–1989)		30%
GenXers
(1965–1980)		21%
Boomers
(1946–1964)		15%
Silent
(1928–1945)		9%
Greatest
(1913–1927)		5%

Politics

In the late 2010s, 21% of registered voters were religiously unaffiliated; they are considered to be the largest "religious" voting block. [74] [75]

More than six-in-ten religiously unaffiliated registered voters are Democrats (39%) or lean toward the Democratic Party (24%). They are about twice as likely to describe themselves as political liberals than as conservatives, and solid majorities support legal abortion (72%) and same-sex marriage (73%). In the last five years, the unaffiliated have risen from 17% to 24% of all registered voters who are Democrats or lean Democratic. [45] According to a Pew Research exit poll 70% of those who were religiously unaffiliated voted for Barack Obama.

In January 2007, California Congressman Pete Stark became the first openly atheist member of Congress. In January 2013, Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly non-theist Congresswoman, representing the state of Arizona. [76]

See also

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References

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  2. 1 2 Lipka, Michael; Tevington, Patricia; Starr, Kelsey (February 7, 2024). "8 facts about Atheists". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. Atheists make up 4% of U.S. adults, according to our 2023 National Public Opinion Reference Survey. That compares with 3% who described themselves as atheists in 2014 and 2% who did so in 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 Hout, Michael (November 2017). "American Religion, All or Nothing at All". Contexts. 16 (4): 78–80. doi: 10.1177/1536504217742401 . S2CID   67327797.
  4. 1 2 Robert Fuller, Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America, Oxford University Press (2001). pp. 1-4.
  5. ↑ Burge, Ryan (February 24, 2021). "Most 'Nones' Still Keep the Faith". Research. Christianity Today. while many people have walked away from a religious affiliation, they haven't left all aspects of religion and spirituality behind. So, while growing numbers of Americans may not readily identify as Christian any longer, they still show up to a worship service a few times a year or maintain their belief in God. The reality is that many of the nones are really "somes."...The center of the Venn diagram indicates that just 15.3 percent of the population that are nones on one dimension are nones on all dimensions. That amounts to just about 6 percent of the general public who don't belong to a religious tradition and don't attend church and hold to an atheist or agnostic worldview.
  6. 1 2 "Not All Nonbelievers Call Themselves Atheists | Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project". Pewforum.org. April 2, 2009. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
  7. 1 2 "In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. October 17, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Measuring Religion in Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel". Pew Research Center. January 14, 2021. 28% are "nones" (including 4% who describe themselves as atheists, 5% who are agnostics, and 18% who are "nothing in particular")
  9. 1 2 "Religion". Gallup, Inc. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  10. ↑ "About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated". Pew Research Center . December 14, 2021. p. 1. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  11. ↑ Johnson, Byron; Stark, Rodney; Bradshaw, Matt; Levin, Jeff (2022). "Are Religious "Nones" Really Not Religious?: Revisiting Glenn, Three Decades Later". Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion . 18 (7). Baylor University . Retrieved November 4, 2024. As briefly noted above, proportions of atheists and intense, practicing Christians appear to be somewhat stable across time, casting some doubt on a major decline in religiosity (Stark 2008, 2011; Hout and Smith 2015; Stetzer 2015). According to Stark (2008:177), data from multiple population surveys show that the proportion of the U.S. population that identifies as atheist was unchanged for at least 70 years, from the 1940s until the past decade, at about 4%.
  12. ↑ Wuthnow, Robert (2015). Inventing American Religion : Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation's Faith. Oxford University Press. pp. 151–155. ISBN   9780190258900.
  13. 1 2 3 Johnson, Byron; Stark, Rodney; Bradshaw, Matt; Levin, Jeff (2022). "Are Religious "Nones" Really Not Religious?: Revisiting Glenn, Three Decades Later". Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. 18 (7).
  14. ↑ Blankholm, Joseph (2022). The Secular Paradox : On the Religiosity of the Not Religious. New York: New York University Press. p. 7. ISBN   9781479809509.
  15. 1 2 3 Johnson, Todd; Zurlo, Gina (2016). "Unaffiliated, Yet Religious: A Methodological and Demographic Analysis". In Cipriani, Roberto; Garelli, Franco (eds.). Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion: Volume 7: Sociology of Atheism. Leiden: Brill. pp. 58–60. ISBN   9789004317536.
  16. ↑ Hout, Michael; Fischer, Claude S. (October 13, 2014). "Explaining Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Political Backlash and Generational Succession, 1987-2012" (PDF). Sociological Science. 1: 423–447. doi: 10.15195/v1.a24 .
  17. ↑ Davis, Jim; Graham, Michael; Burge, Ryan; Hansen, Collin (2023). The Great Dechurching: Who's Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?. Zondervan. p. 121. ISBN   9780310147435. What is often overlooked is that when people say they no longer go to church or affiliate with a religious institution, that doesn't mean they leave all vestiges of religion behind...They left the religious label behind but not their belief. In the same way, a lack of church attendance doesn't necessarily mean someone has given up on the idea of God. Among those who report never attending church in the General Social Survey, the share who don't believe in God is about 20 percent. But the share of these never attenders who say they believe in God without any doubts is also about 20 percent. Despite the fact that about 40 percent of Americans never attend church and 30 percent say they have no religious affiliation, just one in ten Americans says God does not exist or that we have no way to know if God exists. Religious belief is stubborn in the United States, and while someone may not act on that belief by going to a house of worship on Sunday morning, that doesn't mean they think their spiritual life is unimportant.
  18. ↑ Drescher, Elizabeth (2016). Choosing our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America's Nones. New York. pp. 21–26. ISBN   9780199341221.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ↑ Cox, Kiana (March 17, 2021). "Nine-in-ten Black 'nones' believe in God, but fewer pray or attend services". Pew Research Center.
  20. ↑ "Key findings about Americans' belief in God". Pew Research Center. April 25, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Religious 'Nones' in America: Who They Are and What They Believe". Pew Research Center. January 24, 2024. No, not all "nones" are nonbelievers. They are far less likely than religiously affiliated Americans to say they believe in God "as described in the Bible," but most do believe in God or some other higher power. Just 29% reject the notion that there is any higher power or spiritual force in the universe.
  22. ↑ Lipka, Michael; Tevington, Patricia; Starr, Kelsey (February 7, 2024). "8 facts about Atheists". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. About three-quarters of U.S. atheists (77%) do not believe in God or a higher power or in a spiritual force of any kind, according to our summer 2023 survey. At the same time, 23% say they do believe in a higher power of some kind.
  23. ↑ "Are all religiously unaffiliated adults in the US nonbelievers?". Pew Research Center. January 24, 2024. Archived from the original on May 7, 2024. Not all 'nones' are nonbelievers. Far from it. While the "nones" include many nonbelievers, 70% of "nones" say they believe in God or another higher power, and 63% say they believe in spiritual forces beyond the natural world.
  24. ↑ Frank Newport, God is Alive and Well: The Future of Religion in America. Simon and Schuster (2013). pp 14-15.
  25. ↑ Pearce, Lisa; Gilliland, Claire (2020). Religion in America. University of California Press. pp. 7, 137–138. ISBN   9780520296428.
  26. 1 2 Zuckerman, Phil (2014). Living the Secular Life : New Answers to Old Questions. New York. pp. 123–124. ISBN   978-0143127932.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. 1 2 Salmon, Jacqueline. "In America, Nonbelievers Find Strength in Numbers", Washington Post (September 15, 2007).
  28. 1 2 Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 7, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), March 2009, American Religious Identification Survey [ARIS 2008], Trinity College.
  29. ↑ Cary Funk, Greg Smith. "Nones on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation" (PDF). Pew Research Center. pp. 9, 42. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  30. 1 2 3 "Losing Our Religion: The Growth of the 'Nones'". NPR. January 13, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  31. 1 2 3 Hout, Michael; Smith, Tom (March 2015). "Fewer Americans Affiliate with Organized Religions, Belief and Practice Unchanged: Key Findings from the 2014 General Social Survey" (PDF). General Social Survey. NORC. The percentage answering 'no religion' was 21 percent in 2014, 20 percent in 2012, just 14 percent as recently as 2000, and only 8 percent in 1990." & "In 2014, 3 percent of Americans did not believe in God and 5 percent expressed an agnostic view; the comparable percentages were 2 percent and 4 percent in 1991. More people believed in a 'higher power' in 2014 (13%) than in 1991 (7%).
  32. ↑ Gervais, Will M.; Najle, Maxine B. (2018). "How many atheists are there?". Social Psychological and Personality Science. 9: 3–10. doi: 10.1177/1948550617707015 .
  33. ↑ Cary Funk, Greg Smith. "Nones" on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation" (PDF). Pew Research Center. p. 43. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2013. All told, about two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) describe themselves as religious (either in addition to be being spiritual or not). Nearly one-in-five say they are spiritual but not religious (18%), and about one-in-six say they are neither religious nor spiritual (15%).
  34. ↑ "'Nones' on the Rise". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. October 9, 2012. However, a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted jointly with the PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, finds that many of the country's 46 million unaffiliated adults are religious or spiritual in some way. Two-thirds of them say they believe in God (68%). More than half say they often feel a deep connection with nature and the earth (58%), while more than a third classify themselves as "spiritual" but not "religious" (37%), and one-in-five (21%) say they pray every day. In addition, most religiously unaffiliated Americans think that churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 "America's Changing Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. May 12, 2015.
  36. ↑ "Pew-Most "Nones" Were Raised in a Religion". Pew Research Center. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  37. ↑ "GSS-Data-Explorer-NORC-at-the-University-of-Chicago-1 hosted at ImgBB".
  38. ↑ "Current Religious Affiliation, by Former Religious Affiliation" . Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  39. ↑ "GSS Data Explorer | NORC at the University of Chicago". gssdataexplorer.norc.org. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  40. 1 2 Chaves, Mark (2017). American Religion: Contemporary Trends. Princeton University Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN   9780691177564. The vast majority of people — approximately 80 percent — describe themselves as both spiritual and religious. Still, a small but growing minority of Americans describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, as figure 3.4 shows. In 1998, 9 percent of Americans described themselves as at least moderately spiritual but not more than slightly religious. That number rose to 16 percent in the 2010s.
  41. 1 2 "More Americans now say they're spiritual but not religious". Pew Research Center. September 6, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  42. ↑ "World Values Survey Database". World Values Survey. World Values Survey Association. Retrieved March 27, 2018. Excluding DK/NA
  43. ↑ ""Nones" on the Rise". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. October 9, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  44. ↑ "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" (PDF). Pew Research Center. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 17, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  45. 1 2 "'Nones' on the Rise". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. October 9, 2012.
  46. ↑ "Religion Among the Millennials". Pew Research Center. February 17, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  47. ↑ "America's Changing Religious Identity". PRRI. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  48. ↑ "Are All Nones the Same? Exploring the Political Differences Between Atheists and Agnostics". Religion in Public. June 8, 2017.
  49. ↑ "Growth and Decline in American Religion over the Last Decade". Religion in Public. July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  50. ↑ "Faith in Flux". April 27, 2009.
  51. ↑ "In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. October 17, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  52. ↑ Fahmy, Dalia (April 25, 2018). "Key findings about Americans' belief in God". Fact Tank. Pew Research Center. Finally, among those who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated – also known as "nones" – 72% say they believe in a higher power of some kind.
  53. ↑ Mitchell, Travis (October 7, 2024). "National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS)". Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  54. ↑ Maher, B. (2024). What This Comedian Said Will Shock You. Simon & Schuster. p. 178. ISBN   978-1-6680-5140-5 . Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  55. ↑ Gorski, Eric (November 24, 2009). "Atheist student groups flower on college campuses". USA Today. The Associated Press. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  56. 1 2 3 4 Zuckerman, Phil (2014). Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions. [S.l.]: Penguin Books. ISBN   978-1594205088.
  57. ↑ Gregory, Smith (September 14, 2016). "The factors driving the growth of religious 'nones' in the U.S." Pew Research Center.
  58. ↑ Mercadante, Linda A. (2014). Belief without Borders : Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 29–30. ISBN   9780199931002.
  59. ↑ Hout, Michael; Fischer, Claude S. (April 2002). "Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations". American Sociological Review. 67 (2): 165. doi:10.2307/3088891. JSTOR   3088891.
  60. ↑ Wuthnow, Robert (2007). After the Baby Boomers : How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings are Shaping the Future of American religion. Princeton University Press. pp.  51–70. ISBN   978-0691127651.
  61. 1 2 3 Fuller, Robert C. (December 20, 2001). Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-803354-7.
  62. ↑ Masci, David (January 8, 2016). "Q&A: Why Millennials are less religious than older Americans". Pew Research Center.
  63. ↑ Blankholm, Joseph (2022). The Secular Paradox: On the Religiosity of the Not Religious. New York University Press. pp. 3, 8. ISBN   9781479809509. Secular people's efforts to avoid religion and the creative ways in which they embrace it generate the diversity in American secularism. This book makes sense of secular people's strange ambivalence toward religion. Though being secular means being not religious, it also means participating in a secular tradition and sharing ways of life with other secular people. The secular paradox is the tension between what secular people do not share and what they have in common between avoiding religion and embracing something like it...all secular people live with the secular paradox." & "Each chapter of this book examines a different aspect of religion: belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. Because secular people struggle to simply remove all of these religion-like elements from their lives, they affirm them in part or entirely, sometimes uncritically but more often quite carefully and not without reservations.
  64. ↑ "Religion and the Unaffiliated". "Nones" on the Rise. Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. October 9, 2012.
  65. ↑ "Most of the Religiously Unaffiliated Still Keep Belief in God". Pew Research Center. November 15, 2012.
  66. ↑ "The Association of Religion Data Archives | National Profiles". Thearda.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  67. 1 2 "Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project". Pew Research Center. December 21, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  68. ↑ "Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project: Guam". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on October 25, 2015. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  69. ↑ "The Association of Religion Data Archives | National Profiles". Thearda.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  70. ↑ "Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project: Northern Mariana Islands". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on January 23, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  71. ↑ "Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project: American Samoa". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on January 23, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  72. ↑ Lin, Joanna (March 16, 2009). "New England surpasses West Coast as least religious region in America, study finds". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  73. ↑ "'No Religion' on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation". Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. October 9, 2012. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  74. ↑ "How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis". Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  75. ↑ Ingraham, Christopher. "The non-religious are now the country's largest religious voting bloc". Washington Post. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  76. ↑ Oppenheimer, Mark (November 9, 2012). "Politicians Who Reject Labels Based on Religion". The New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2012.

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