More Americans Say They Have No Religion

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state.

"No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.
In the Northeast, self-identified Catholics made up 36 percent of adults last year, down from 43 percent in 1990. At the same time, however, Catholics grew to about one-third of the adult population in California and Texas, and one-quarter of Floridians, largely due to Latino immigration, according to the research.

Nationally, Catholics remain the largest religious group, with 57 million people saying they belong to the church. The tradition gained 11 million followers since 1990, but its share of the population fell by about a percentage point to 25 percent.

Christians who aren't Catholic also are a declining segment of the country.


Number of Christians Drops 11% in America

The number of Americans who identify as Christian has dropped more than 11% in less than 20 years.

Despite a growth of 50 million people in the United States since 1990, almost all religious denominations have lost followers in the country, according to a study by the American Religious Identification Survey.

Fifteen percent of Americans say they do not identify with any religion, up from 8% in 1990. Catholic strongholds such as New England and the Midwest have lost their clout as immigrants have moved into the areas.

States that show a sharp increase in the number of people who don't identify with a religion remain largely in the Northeast, including Vermont and New Hampshire -- coincidentally, two states that are heavily weighing marriage equality.