The Rise of Non-Religious Americans is Occurring All Over the Country
By Hemant Mehta, July 9, 2019

For more than a decade now, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) has conducted frequent surveys to determine political attitudes and demographic shifts for Americans. There’s always a huge sample size and the data is fantastic. Naturally, Professor Ryan P. Burge of Eastern Illinois University sifted through it to see how religious beliefs have changed over time.

He explained three of those changes in a post, and they’re fascinating for those of us who want to see a nation that’s less dependent on organized religion.

First, he looked at changes in religious affiliation over the past decade. We know the popularity of organized religion has declined over time, but the numbers for most denominations has been relatively stable over the years. There were drops and gains for various groups but it’s not like any group is perpetually heading downhill.

The “No Religion” line, however, seems to go up and up and up…

That’s interesting! That’s also not all that new. Several surveys have shown “Nones” on the rise, if not the largest single “religious” group in the country.

Then Burge looked at what’s happening state by state since the CCES data lets him break it down like that. When it comes to which religious groups have seen the greatest rise within each state between 2008 and 2018, he found that the “Nones” are running the board.