{"id":22163,"date":"2026-03-13T10:59:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=22163"},"modified":"2026-03-13T10:59:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:59:36","slug":"religious-nones-reach-record-high-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=22163","title":{"rendered":"Religious \u2018nones\u2019 reach record high in US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock)<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans with no formal religious identity, popularly known as the \u201cnones,\u201d reached a record share of the population in 2025, according to Gallup\u00a0data that shows fewer than 50% of adults also report that religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives.<\/p>\n

The findings, based on interviews with more than 13,000 U.S. adults across Gallup\u2019s monthly 2025 surveys, show that the share of Americans identifying as \u201cnones\u201d reached a new high of 24%, up from 21% to 22% over the previous four years. The share of Americans identifying as \u201cnones\u201d has grown steadily from 2% in 1948 to its current record.<\/p>\n

In addition to the quarter of American adults identifying as \u201cnones,\u201d some 28% have said religion is \u201cnot very important\u201d in their lives, which has remained constant since 2022.<\/p>\n

Less than half (47%) of American adults say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives, while another 25% said it is \u201cfairly important\u201d to them.<\/p>\n

The share of Americans who say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives has registered below 50% in recent years. It has been in gradual decline from 58% in 2012, and 70% to 75% in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Gallup.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans\u2019 relationship with religion continues to evolve, marked by fewer adults describing religion as central to their lives, rising religious non-affiliation and persistently low levels of religious service attendance,\u201d Megan Brenan, a senior editor at Gallup, concluded.<\/p>\n

The survey shows that while a majority of all demographic groups in America said their faith was very important to them from 2001 to 2005, only six groups remain highly religious, well over 50% today. They are: Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Republicans, Protestant or non-denominational Christians, black adults, adults aged 65 and older, and Southerners, said Gallup. Majorities of lower-income Americans, women, and those aged 50 to 64 also report that religion is very important to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile religion remains deeply important to major segments of the population (Republicans, Protestants, Black adults, older Americans, and Southerners in particular), the long-term trajectory shows a steady decline driven largely by generational replacement,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cYounger adults are both less likely to identify with a religion and less likely to attend services, reshaping the nation\u2019s religious landscape as they constitute a growing share of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

In “Breaking Free of the Iron Cage: The Individualization of American Religion,” published in the peer-reviewed open-access academic journal Socius last year, researchers suggested that more Americans are leaving organized religion in search of personalized faith perspectives that embrace syncretism \u2014 a fusion of different religions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur analysis shows how young people are responding to the bureaucratization and rationalization that [German sociologist Max] Weber predicted would create an \u2018iron cage\u2019 in modern institutions, developing new forms of religious and spiritual expression outside formal institutions,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bring the iron cage argument back to religion, making the case that rising individualization and autonomy reflected in the 1960s countercultural movement set the stage for a revolution against the bureaucratization and politicization of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 The Christian Post<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock) Americans with no formal religious identity, popularly known as the \u201cnones,\u201d reached a record share of the population in 2025, according to Gallup\u00a0data that shows fewer than 50% of adults also report that religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives. The findings, based on interviews with more than 13,000 U.S. adults across Gallup\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2411,3868,612,465,91],"class_list":["post-22163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-high","tag-nones","tag-reach","tag-record","tag-religious"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}