---
title: "Religiously Unaffiliated"
description: "The number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children."
date: "2008-06-20"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2008/06/20/religiously-unaffiliated/"
---

# Religiously Unaffiliated

The number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (about 16%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Through the 1980s, surveys consistently found that between 5% and 8% of the public was not affiliated with any particular religion. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion)