HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A new report finds that the growing number of Americans who don’t claim any religious affiliation are more likely to be male, young, living in the West and politically independent.
The new profile of America’s “No Religion Population” takes a deeper look at data collected for the American Religious Identification Survey 2008, which was released by Trinity College.
The new report finds that American adults who claim no religious affiliation increased from 14 million in 1990 to 34 million in
2008, and grew from just over 8 percent of the population to 15 percent.
It says most of the religiously unaffiliated in the U.S. are not atheists, but “embrace philosophical and theological beliefs that reflect skepticism rather than overt antagonism toward religion.”