Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
Although the Nones are now a well-established category of religiously unaffiliated people, it groups together people who still consider themselves religious with those who do not. It has been steadily growing in the US, as more and more people abandon organized religions. For the first time, almost half the country (47%) has polled as unaffiliated with any church. However, these are not the "Nones". This group only includes Nones.
Link: It’s Not Just Young White Liberals Who Are Leaving Religion
The growth of the Nones seems to be the largest factor in people dropping away:
The article goes on to give details on why it is so hard to pin down the number of Nones in the US. Basically, there is no standard way to measure the category, so it ranges between a fifth and a quarter of the US population.
Link: It’s Not Just Young White Liberals Who Are Leaving Religion
Only 47 percent of American adults said they were members of a church, mosque or synagogue, according to recently released polling that was conducted by Gallup throughout last year. It marked the first time that a majority of Americans said they were not members of a church, mosque or synagogue since Gallup first started asking Americans about their religious membership in the 1930s. Indeed, Gallup’s finding was a kind of watershed moment in the long-chronicled shift of Americans away from organized religion.
The growth of the Nones seems to be the largest factor in people dropping away:
What’s driving this shift? In part, it’s about people who still identify with a religious tradition opting not to be a member of a particular congregation. Only 60 percent of Americans who consider themselves religious are part of a congregation, compared to 70 percent a decade ago, according to Gallup. But the bigger factor, Gallup said, is the surge of religiously unaffiliated Americans — people who are agnostics, atheists or simply say they are not affiliated with a religious tradition. The rise of this group — sometimes referred to as “nones” because they answer “none” when asked about their faith (and, you know, it’s a play on words) — isn’t new...
The article goes on to give details on why it is so hard to pin down the number of Nones in the US. Basically, there is no standard way to measure the category, so it ranges between a fifth and a quarter of the US population.