US becoming less Christian, more secular

Fewer Americans are describing themselves as Christians as the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated rise, according to a new study released Tuesday.

Christian affiliation declined by 7.8 percentage points down to 70.6 of the U.S. population between 2007 and 2014, according to the Pew survey. People describing themselves as “atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular’” shot up from 16.1 percent to 22.8 percent during the same time period.

The decline in those affiliated to a religious belief is occurring across all regions and demographic groups, the study found in its survey of 35,000 adults.

“While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages,” Pew said in its study. “The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men.”

The rise of the religiously unaffiliated struck researchers as one of the most significant conclusions. In terms of sheer numbers, Pew estimates their numbers rose by about 19 million in the last seven years, up to 56 million from 37 million.

“What we’re seeing now is that the share of people who say religion is important to them is declining,” Pew’s associate director of research Greg Smith told the Washington Post. “The religiously unaffiliated are not just growing, but as they grow, they are becoming more secular.”

The finding that the unaffiliated now outnumber America's 52.2 million Catholics comes as a “striking and important note,” Smith told The Washington Post.

Pew also found that as millennials age, they are giving up church affiliation.

“About a third of older millennials (adults currently in their late 20s and early 30s) now say they have no religion, up nine percentage points among this cohort since 2007, when the same group was between ages 18 and 26,” Pew said.

But as Christianity declines, other religions continue to grow. Overall, identification with a religion that is not Christianity went up by about 1.2 percent, with significant jumps in Islam and Hinduism, gaining .5 percent and .3 percent more respondents, respectively.