Items of Interest December 3, 2012 Issue

One in five Americans say they have no religious affiliation

Kimberly Winston

“Losing our religion: one in five Americans are now ‘nones’ ” © 2012 Religion News Service. Used with permission. October 10, 2012

The number of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation has hit an all-time high—about one in five American adults—according to a new study released in October by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Labeled “nones” because they claim either no religious preference or no religion at all, their ranks have hit 46 million people. Much of the growth is among young people—one in three US adults under 30 are now considered nones.

The report also found that the number of self-described atheists and agnostics has hit a peak: 13 million people, or 6 percent of the US population. That’s a rise of 2 percentage points over five years.

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