The (Slight) Rise of the Non-religious

Americans who claim to have "no religion" are in slightly greater numbers than in 2001 according to a survey taken last year and released today.

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), released on Monday, shows that the percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent.

The findings were based on over 54,000 interviews conducted between February and November of last year. The 2008 survey was a continuation of ARIS surveys in 1990 and 2001, which are part of a landmark series by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Vermont carries the distinction as the state of the most non-religious. Atheists in all states have doubled in number.

Vermont has become the least religious state in the country with 34 percent of "Nones," leading all other states by 9 percentage points. Between 1990 and 2008, the Green Mountain State had the largest percentage increase of non-religious people (21 percent), beating out New Hampshire (20 percent), Delaware (16 percent) and Massachusetts (14 percent).

"Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly," Keysar said. "We now know it wasn’t. The ‘Nones’ are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union."

Despite a small proportion (1.6 percent) of Americans calling themselves atheist or agnostic, a review of stated beliefs shows that 12 percent are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God), and 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure).

Over the past seven years, the number of outright atheists has nearly doubled, from 900,000 to 1.6 million, according to the survey.

Still, Christians take heart. Three out of every four Americans still identify themselves as such.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Christians in America has declined from 76.7 in 2001 to 76 percent, down from 86.2 percent in the 1990s. The shrinking proportion of Christians is largely attributed to the decline in the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian/Anglican churches, and the United Church of Christ.

There's some interesting stuff on where protestant Christianity is heading as mainline denominations morph into evangelicals.

It will be interesting to see what troubled economic times will do to personal belief systems.