The percentage of Americans who claim no religious affiliation nearly doubled from 2007 (16 percent) to 2022 (31 percent).

They're becoming a force in American culture and one of the largest segments of the religious landscape, according to Pew Research.

Waning nones

But all things pass. And the skyrocketing growth of the nones may be fading.

"They are not growing as fast as they used to," said Ryan Burge.

He's an associate professor of political science at Southern Illinois University and author of "The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going."

Burge, known for his popular graphs depicting religion trends, told Religion News Service in an interview that the growth of the nones appears to be waning.

He pointed to data from Pew, the General Social Survey and the Cooperative Election Study, all of which appear to show a slowdown in the percentage of Americans who claim no religion.

Pew data

Pew's most recent published data found that 28 percent of Americans did not identify with a religion in 2023, a slight dip from the previous year.

The CES data, the latest of which was released in May, showed that from 2020 to 2023, the percentage of nones was relatively stable.

In 2020, the CES found that 34 percent of those surveyed were nones, while in 2021 and 2023, that percentage was 36 percent. (In 2022, 35 percent of those surveyed were nones.)

From a pure statistical standpoint, I don't know if we can say with any certainty whether there's a larger share of nones in the United States today than there was in 2019," Burge wrote in a recent edition of his Substack newsletter.

Burge compared the growth of the nones to the growth curve of popular products such as the Peloton bikes or tech companies like Apple and Google.

Those brands grew rapidly at first but could not keep up that rapid growth forever.

"They became mature businesses," said Burge.

"That's what the nones are — they're not going to grow at this unbelievable pace going forward."

Burge also suspects that most of the Americans who were eager or ready to give up on identifying with a religion have already done so.

Any future growth, he said, will likely come from generational replacement — as older, more religious Americans die off and younger, less religious Americans take their place.

Greg Smith, associate director of research at Pew Research Center, said it's too early to tell what exactly is happening with the nones.

There have been some signs in recent years that the percentage of nones is stabilising, he said, but that may be due to the normal fluctuations in survey responses from year to year.

In 2022, he said, the percentage of nones jumped to 31 percent, then dropped back down to 28 percent. He added that in 2016, the growth of the nones appeared to pause and then started to grow again.

"As we looked at the data, the conclusion we've come to, even it is kind of wishy-washy, is that it's way too early to tell if the rise of the religious nones has come to an end," he said.

More data needed

Conrad Hackett, a senior demographer and associate director of research at Pew, said there are signs that "something interesting" is happening with nones right now but more data is needed.

Hackett said the conditions that fueled the rise of the nones are still in place.

Younger Americans are less religious than older Americans, many Americans still switch their religious faith, and being nonreligious has become "stickier," said Hackett — so that people who are born without a religious identity are more likely to stay nonreligious.

Nonreligious people in the U.S. also tend to be younger than religious people.

Hackett is the co-author of a 2022 Pew report that projected what religion in American could look like in the next 50 years.

That report looked at the birth and mortality rates as well as rates of switching religious identities and projected a long, slow growth in the nones for the foreseeable future.

Researchers projected that by 2070, the nones would make up between 41 percent and 52 percent of Americans.

Christians, according to Pew's projections, would make up just under half of Americans, with non-Christian religious people making up about 12 percent) of the population.

Complicating matters is that Pew, like other organisations that survey religion in America, has moved to a probability-based online model for surveys — rather than mostly phone interviews.

The GSS, a well-respected and long-running survey, switched from in-person interviews to a hybrid phone and online model during COVID — making it harder to compare its most recent data with past versions.

The CES data has consistently found higher percentages of nones than the GSS and Pew. But Burge said all three sources appear to show that something has changed with the growth of the nones.

Democracy at risk

The slowing growth of the nones doesn't mean a religious revival in the U.S.

Instead, Burge said, the U.S. will likely end up in the future with large numbers of religious people and nonreligious people, with neither group having a sizable majority.

That will pose challenges for democracy, he said, which relies on cooperation and compromise.

That is difficult when many people are feeling unnerved by the changes in the country and where religious and nonreligious people have different ideas on how the country should be run.

And those conflicting ideas lead to polarisation and at times, hostility. That hostility, if it continues to grow, "will be bad for democracy," said Burge.

"We can't function in a democracy where you have two very large groups who hate each other."

• First published in Religion News Service
• Bob Smietana is a veteran religion writer and national reporter for Religion News Service.

The November 2022 survey of over 11,000 US adults focused on how many were engaging in online worship and how they felt about the experience.

Post-pandemic, the online option is still a popular choice. While most find it satisfactory, they said they prefer an in-person experience at church.

Many said they felt less connected to other worshippers when online.

Connection with others

About two-thirds of regular in-person churchgoers said that they felt "quite a bit" or "a great deal" of connection with others attending the same service.

In contrast, just over a quarter (28 percent) of regular virtual viewers reported the same sense of connection with in-person worshippers when they watch online or on TV.

Fifty-one percent of people who attend online services said they generally watched the services alone; most don't join in the singing or praying when they watched online.

They usually do when they attend in person, they said.

Convenience is key

Most online worshippers told Pew they prefer the online services because they are convenient rather than for reasons of personal safety.

There are ethnic differences at play with that finding, however. Pew says Black congregation members were more likely to join online services - owing partly to continuing concerns about Covid, which has disproportionately affected Black communities.

Seventeen per cent continued to join online and in person. Most said they were satisfied with online services.

"Broadly speaking, the survey finds that most Americans who watch religious services on screens are happy with them.

"Two-thirds of US adults who regularly stream religious services online or watch them on TV say they are either ‘extremely satisfied' or ‘very satisfied' with the services they see," the researchers say.

Interestingly, those who both watched services online and attended church in person were more likely to follow virtual services from a different church from the one they usually attended.

Sermons and music

About two thirds of respondents said they were satisfied with the sermons they hear during virtual services. In addition, just over half reported being highly satisfied with the music at worship services they join online or watch on TV.

In comparison, those attending services in person seem to be getting more out of the experience. Seventy-four percent say they feel extremely or very satisfied with the sermons; 69 percent say they are satisfied with the music.

Religious technology

The survey also asked about "religious technology", such as prayer or Bible apps.

Members of historically Black Protestant churches (37 per cent), as well as Evangelical Protestants (28 per cent), were the most likely to engage at least weekly in technology for religious purposes.

They use apps for prayer or scripture and participating in online study groups.

Key findings show:

30 percent of US adults say they go online to search for information about religion.

21 percent use apps or websites to help them read the Bible or other religious scriptures.

15 percent listen to religion-focused podcasts.

14 percent use apps or websites to help or remind them to pray.

Source

• Church Times
• Pew Research

Even though the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has seen places of worship in the United States - as elsewhere - close for several weeks, many have livestreamed their services online.

In April this year the Pew Research Centre (via the Roper Center) ran a survey asking Americans questions about their religious faith and how their places of worship were reacting to the pandemic.

Many respondents said their houses of worship were able to go online.

Of those affiliated with a religious tradition, 81.2 percent said their house of worship had shifted to broadcasting services over the internet. They are also reporting a larger growth in faith than those whose services have not moved to online streaming.

Of those who had moved online, 42.4 percent said their faith has grown stronger.

For those without an online service to watch, just 30.9 percent said their faith had grown stronger. Only very small shares of either group said that their faith had weakened because of the pandemic.

The survery also showed online worship is especially beneficial for those who attended services most frequently before the pandemic. At almost every attendance level, those who had said that their house of worship was streaming services online were more likely to say their faith grew than those who had no online viewing option. In most cases, the difference was 10 percentage points.

The survey reduced fears that age or economic disadvantages have created large demographic disparities when it comes to accessing streaming services. For instance, those aged 65 and older were as likely to say their institution was streaming services as the youngest respondents in the sample. Only African Americans as a group were slightly less likely to say their churches were online, compared with white and Hispanic respondents.

Some differences based on education were noted. More highly educated respondents were sic points more likely to have streaming services than those with a high school diploma or less. Evangelical churches were nearly 10 points more likely to go online than Catholic parishes.

In essence, many houses of worship are still providing spiritual care for their members and many have benefited from virtual services, especially those who are regular attendees.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Image: Word&Way

The survey results released this week show:

• 30% of American Catholic adults say Francis is doing an "excellent" or a "good" job addressing the issue
• 60% say he is doing an "only fair" or "poor" job handling the sex abuse scandal
• 36% say his efforts on this front have been poor. This is nearly double the share who said he was doing a poor job at the beginning of this year, and triple the share who said this in 2015.

Although US Catholics' confidence has dropped since January's poll, the sex abuse scandal has made the headlines several times in recent months:

• In June, there were widespread allegations against Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, DC, who resigned from the College of Cardinals.
• In August, a Pennsylvania grand jury report said over 300 priests have been accused of sexually abusing minors over the past 70 years
• In late August Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò released a letter alleging Francis and other senior church officials knew about some of the abuses and did nothing. Viganò has suggested Francis should resign because of the scandals.
• Last week, Viganò again wrote to Pope Francis demanding answers in relation to his initial letter.

Although Francis is still rated more positively than negatively for his leadership in spreading the Catholic faith and standing up for traditional moral values, according to the Pew Research results the share of Catholics who say he is doing an excellent or a good job in this work has declined this year.

Source

• Pew Research Centre
• LifeSight News
• Image: The Tablet

The share of countries with high or very high restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose from 31% in the year ending in mid-2009 to 37% in the year ending in mid-2010. Because some of the most restrictive countries are very populous, three-quarters of the world's approximately 7 billion people live in countries with high government restrictions on religion or high social hostilities involving religion, up from 70% a year earlier.

Restrictions on religion rose not only in countries that began the year with high or very high restrictions or hostilities, such as Indonesia and Nigeria, but also in many countries that began with low or moderate restrictions or hostilities, such as Switzerland and the United States. (See sidebar on the U.S..)

The rising tide of restrictions in the latest year studied is attributable to a variety of factors, including increases in crimes, malicious acts and violence motivated by religious hatred or bias, as well as increased government interference with worship or other religious practices. For instance, a November 2009 constitutional referendum in Switzerland banned the construction of minarets on mosques in the country. In Indonesia, more than two dozen churches were forced to close due to pressure from Islamist extremists or, in some instances, local officials. And in Nigeria, violence between Christian and Muslim communities, including a series of deadly attacks, escalated throughout the period.

During the latest year covered in the study, there also was an increase in harassment or intimidation of particular religious groups. Indeed, five of the seven major religious groups monitored by the study - Jews, Christians, Buddhists, adherents of folk or traditional religions, and members of other world religions - experienced four-year highs in the number of countries in which they were harassed by national, provincial or local governments, or by individuals or groups in society (for details, see Harassment of Specific Groups).

This is the third time the Pew Forum has measured restrictions on religion around the globe. The new study scores 197 countries and territories on the same two indexes used in the previous studies: ¹

• The Government Restrictions Index (GRI) measures government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs or practices. The GRI is comprised of 20 measures of restrictions, including efforts by governments to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversions, limit preaching or give preferential treatment to one or more religious groups.
• The Social Hostilities Index (SHI) measures acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations and social groups. This includes mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons and other religion-related intimidation or abuse. The SHI includes 13 measures of social hostilities. Read more

Sources

• The Pew Forum
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Central European Religious Freedom Institute

The report titled "The Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion" shows a six percent increase in restrictions in the four years until 2010.

The report cites evidence that paints a stark picture of a "rising tide" of intolerance and government restrictions on religious matters.

Evidence include "crimes, malicious acts and violence motivated by religious hatred or bias, as well as increased government interference with worship or other religious practices".

The survey has seen an acceleration of the tendency towards religious intolerance, reporting a 63 percent rise from mid-2009 to mid-2010 in the number of countries that increased government restrictions, in comparison with Pew's last survey that had noted a 56 percent rise.

"The number of countries where harassment or intimidation of specific religious groups took place rose from 147 as of mid-2009 to 160 as of mid-2010," the report says.

Among countries showing marked increases in religious intolerance for the first time - albeit still only classed as "moderate" - was the United States.

The report notes that the percentage of the world's population living in countries with low levels of restriction fell between 2007 and 2010 from 14 percent to 6 percent.

The survey reports that in all five major regions of the world - including the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa where religious restrictions previously had been declining - freedom of faith was coming under increasing pressure.

The increase in religious restrictions comes as recent surveys have appeared to demonstrate that the world is becoming more religious.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Herald Online
• Image: AP/ The Guardian