The Associated Press reported May 12 on a 2014 Pew Research Center poll that says 56 million Americans are religiously unaffiliated. Between 2007 and 2014, the number of Americans who described themselves as atheist, agnostic or of no particular faith grew from 16% to almost 23% percent. The number of self-described Christians dropped from 78% to 71%.
According to the poll, conducted in English and Spanish, 31% of “nones” said they were atheist or agnostic, compared to 25% percent in 2007. The poll found that while mainline Protestant and Catholic numbers dropped, the number of evangelicals rose slightly to 62 million.
Muslims and Hindus each make up less than 1% of the U.S. population. The number of Jews rose from 1.7% to 1.9% percent of Americans from 2007-14.
The study put the number of Catholic adults at 51 million, about 20% of the population, compared to about 25% in 2007 — or just over one-fifth of the U.S. population, a drop of about 3 percent over seven years. In 2007, Catholics made up about one-quarter of Americans.
Greg Smith, Pew associate research director, said the findings show “substantive changes” among the religiously unaffiliated. He said secular groups have become increasingly organized to counter bias against them.
“Nones” now are the second largest “affiliation”
