Irreligion in the United States

In the United States, between 6% and 11% of the population demonstrated nonreligious attitudes and naturalistic worldviews, namely atheists or agnostics.^{[2]: 1 [1]: 18 [3][4]} 24% of people who do not believe in God or a universal spirit call themselves atheists.^[5] Other given answers are: "Nothing in particular", "Agnostics", "Christians", "Jewish", "Buddhists", "Other religions" and "Don't know/Refused".^[5] Atheists are between 4% and 7% of American adults.^{[1]: 18 [2]} Agnostics make up between 4 and 5% of the adult population.^{[1]: 18 [2][6][7][8]}

A growing proportion of people appear to be reporting no religious affiliation on surveys.^[9] The percentage of Americans without religious affiliation, often labeled as "Nones", is between 22 and 31%.^{[10][11][1]: 18} "No answer" is between 2 and 3%.^[10][11] According to Gallup, the "None" answer to "religious preference" has grown from 2% in 1948 to 22% in 2023.^[10] "Other" and "No answer" have been somewhat stable.^[10] According to Pew, all three subgroups that together make up the religious "nones" have grown over time: in 2021, atheists were 4% (up from 2% in 2011), 5% agnostics (3% a decade before) and 20% "nothing in particular" (14% ten years before).^[2][12]: 3 In 2023, atheists are still 4%.^[8] However, an Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion article says atheists were already about 4% around 2008 and that had been the case since at least the 1940s.^[13]: 8 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] The decrease in strong belief was slower.^[3] Still, "Nones" is an unclear category.^[14][15] It is a heterogenous group of the not religious and intermittently religious.^[16]

For Robert C. Fuller, there are three types of unchurched: some aren’t religious at all ("secular humanists"), those whose relationships with organized religion are ambiguous and those religious but unaffiliated with a church.^[17]: 2-4 Researchers argue that most of the "Nones" should be considered "unchurched", rather than objectively nonreligious;^{[15][18][19][3]} especially since most "Nones" do hold some religious-spiritual beliefs and a notable amount participate in behaviors.^{[15][20][18][21][22]} For example, 72% of American "Nones" believe in God or a Higher Power.^[23][24] Even 23% of self-identified atheists believe in higher power, but not a god.^[25] The majority of the "Nones" are not nonbelievers.^[26] 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".^[27][18][28] Americans may be becoming more "spiritual" and less "religious".^[13]: 4 Some do appear to be spiritual but not religious.^[13]: 5 Their numbers may be growing.^[13]: 5

Social scientists observe that nonreligious Americans are characterized by indifference.^[29] Very few incorporate active irreligion as part of their identity, and only about 1-2% join groups promoting such values.^[29]