Religion

cleanhippie

(19,705 posts) Tue Mar 12, 2013, 09:33 PM Mar 2013

Americans and religion increasingly parting ways, new survey shows

Religious affiliation in the United States is at its lowest point since it began to be tracked in the 1930s, according to analysis of newly released survey data by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Duke University. Last year, one in five Americans claimed they had no religious preference, more than double the number reported in 1990.

Fewer Americans affiliated with an organized religion, survey shows

UC Berkeley sociologists Mike Hout and Claude Fischer , along with Mark Chaves of Duke University, analyzed data on religious attitudes as part of the General Social Survey, a highly cited biannual poll conducted by NORC, an independent research institute at the University of Chicago.

Results of the survey – which looked at numerous issues, including attitudes about gun ownership and how tax dollars should be spent, and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation – are being released now and in coming weeks.

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An analysis of the results suggests the following:

-Liberals are far more likely to claim “no religion” (40 percent) than conservatives (9 percent)
-Men are more likely than women to claim “no religion” (24 percent of men versus 16 percent of women).
-More whites claimed “no religion” (21 percent) compared to African Americans (17 percent) and Mexican Americans (14 percent).
-More than one-third of 18-to-24-year-olds claimed “no religion” compared to just 7 percent of those 75 and older.
-Residents of the Midwestern and Southern states were least likely to claim “no religion” compared to respondents in the Western, Mountain and Northeastern states. But Midwesterners and Southerners are catching up, Hout said.
-Educational differences among those claiming “no religion” are small compared to other demographic differences.
-About one-third of Americans identify with a conservative Protestant denomination, one-quarter are Catholics (although 35 percent were raised Catholic) and 1.5 percent are Jewish.

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/03/12/non-believers/

Thank God!