Why America’s ‘nones’ left religion behind
As the percentage of U.S. adults who do not identify with a religious group grows, we asked these people to explain, in their own words, why they left.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
As the percentage of U.S. adults who do not identify with a religious group grows, we asked these people to explain, in their own words, why they left.
A growing share of self-identified “evangelical or born-again” Protestants (41%) says it has become more difficult to be an evangelical Christian in the U.S. in recent years; just 34% answered the question the same way in September 2014.
Religious “nones” make up 23% of U.S. adults, up from 16% in 2007. And only 27% of those “nones” are absolutely certain about God’s existence, down from 36% in 2007.
The phrase “spiritual but not religious” has become widely used in recent years by some Americans who are trying to describe their religious identity.
Our new report finds that whether U.S. adults are becoming more or less religious depends, in part, on how religious observance is measured.
The 35% of Millennials who do not identify with a religion is double the share of unaffiliated Baby Boomers (17%) and more than three times the share of members of the Silent generation (11%).
The religious face of America is largely a Christian one, with roughly seven-in-ten Americans belonging to that faith. But some of the nation’s biggest metropolitan areas have a very different look.
The growth of the religiously unaffiliated in the U.S. is occurring across genders, generations and racial and ethnic groups.
Atheists, agnostics and people who have no religion in particular may be growing in number in the United States, but they are not uniformly against religion having a role in society.
Some of the stigma associated with atheism may be fading as the number of U.S. adults self-identifying as atheist or agnostic rises.
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