The proportion of non-religious people in the United States is growing in all states except South Dakota, according to new research from the Pew Research Center.
Those who identified as “religiously unaffiliated” — atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” — made up 29% of the national population in the 2024 survey. This represents a 13% increase since 2007.
The U.S. is a historically Christian country where the majority of people (62%) identify as Christians — down from 78% in 2007.
Pew found a huge age gap, with young adults overwhelmingly less religious than their older counterparts — about 46% of younger Americans identify as Christians, compared to 80% of older adults.
The 2024 Pew survey suggested that New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Utah, Wisconsin, Missouri, Montana, and Pennsylvania had the largest growth in the proportion of people identifying as “religiously unaffiliated” since the 2007 study.
Michele Margolis, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies religious changes, told the Associated Press that while young adults often drift away from religion, it is “more likely to become important after they marry and have children.”
Study co-author Patricia Tevington told Newsweek: “Our data only goes back to 2007, but other data sources show that the share of Americans who are not affiliated with a religion has been increasing for several decades and has been on this path since at least the 1990s.”
Source: The Newsweek