UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
by Tom Roberts | Oct. 9, 2012
Bethesda, Md. —
Alexis de Tocqueville’s 19th-century observation that “the Christian religion” had a greater influence on America than any other country in the world might still be true, but if he were visiting today, he’d find Americans dropping their formal religious affiliations in unprecedented numbers.
In the last five years, the number of people who claim no religious affiliation has increased from slightly more than 15 percent to just under 20 percent of all U.S. adults, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center. The study was done in partnership with the PBS program “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.”
According to the report, titled “ ‘Nones’ on the Rise,” the almost 20 percent (33 million people) who are unaffiliated include 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics, or almost 6 percent of the U.S. population. …
How long denominations will be around to provide such benefits is the question. In fact, the only religious groups to remain relatively unchanged are Black Protestant (8 percent), other minority Protestant (6 percent), Orthodox (1 percent), Mormon (2 percent) and Catholic (23 percent). The stability in the Catholic population has largely to do with the influx of Latin American immigrants, previous Pew studies have documented.
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