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Pew Research Center is reaching back through two decades to list the biggest changes to US public opinion. Among the most notable changes was the rise of the religious “nones,” or those who have no religious affiliation.
A blanket term encompassing atheists, agnostics, or those who select “nothing in particular” on surveys, the religious nones are those who do not claim or practice any formal religion. They are not necessarily opposed outright to the idea of God – 13% of nones say they believe in the biblical God – but they do not seek to form a relationship with God through religion.
In the report, Pew found a significant rise in religious nones since it first began keeping track of them, from 16% of American adults in 2007 to 28% in 2023.
While the portion of American adults who claim no religious affiliation has risen consistently since 2007, the year 2023 saw the largest downtick (-3%) in a single year. Pew noted that it is too early to say with confidence that the number of nones has leveled off, or if it will continue to grow in the coming years.
2nd largest "religious group"
Although they are not a group – as they don’t belong to any religion and there is no centralized leadership or community – Pew cites their numbers as rivaling other religious groups and in fact if taken as a whole they would be the second largest religious group in the nation. Their 28% of the population still lags behind Protestants (43%) but they now count as many "members" as Catholics (20%) and all other faiths (8%) put together.
The religious makeup of the United States was just one factor in a wide variety of changing opinions that Pew recognized in the last 20 years. Others included the prevalence of the internet and other rising technologies, a declining trust in national institutions, a growing dissatisfaction with both mainstream political parties, a growing distrust of China, and a complete reversal in support of same-sex marriage.
