After climbing for many years, the proportion of Individuals with no faith has leveled off. For the previous few years, the share of adults who establish as atheist, agnostic or “nothing specifically” has stood at about 29%, in response to a significant research the Pew Analysis Middle launched Feb. 26, 2025.
However this hardly implies that the “nones,” or their impression on American life, are going away. In truth, their sheer measurement makes it seemingly that they may improve in political prominence.
It can presumably come as no shock that many secular voters lean to the political left. It could, nevertheless, be shocking to study that a pretty big variety of nonreligious voters supported President Donald Trump within the 2020 and 2024 elections.
If the above paragraph is a head-scratcher, that’s as a result of “nonreligious” and “secular” are sometimes handled as two methods of claiming the identical factor. However as political scientists who study religion – and the lack thereof – now we have discovered that there’s a elementary distinction between the 2. Whereas standard knowledge holds that spiritual voters are Republicans and nonreligious voters are Democrats, the fact is extra sophisticated.
Nonreligious vs. secular
So, what’s the distinction between people who find themselves nonreligious vs. those that are secular?
The nonreligious are likely to outline themselves by what they don’t seem to be: for instance, not belonging to a faith, not attending worship companies, not believing in God. In our surveys, many individuals with out a spiritual affiliation don’t cite any specific worldview or philosophy when requested what guides their life.
Secular individuals, however, define themselves by what they are: somebody who has embraced a humanistic and even scientific worldview. That’s, when requested about the place they discover fact, they flip to sources corresponding to science and philosophy as a substitute of scripture and spiritual teachings. Usually, they establish as atheist, agnostic or humanist.
There are secular individuals, nevertheless, who additionally embrace some elements of religion. Religiosity and secularity will not be in a zero-sum relationship: extra of 1 doesn’t essentially imply much less of the opposite. In our analysis, we discovered many instances of people that belong to a non secular congregation yet have a secular worldview: This describes many Jews, mainline Protestants and even Catholics, for instance.
4 teams
To get a greater sense of Individuals’ views, for over a decade now we have labored on creating inquiries to establish individuals with a secular outlook, whereas additionally asking about spiritual dedication, corresponding to how usually somebody attends companies. Our findings culminated within the 2021 ebook “Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics.”
Primarily based on the outcomes, we are able to divide the U.S. inhabitants into 4 teams: Religionists, Nonreligionists, Secularists and Spiritual Secularists.
The Religionists class contains individuals of all faiths. At 41%, that is the most important group in the US, however they don’t kind a majority.
Secularists make up 27% of the inhabitants – bigger than the proportion of any single spiritual custom. Evangelical Christians, for instance, are 23% of the U.S. inhabitants, according to Pew, and Catholics are 19%.
One other 14% of Individuals are what we name Spiritual Secularists: individuals who establish with and take part in a non secular group, but have a secular worldview. They could attend worship companies however take into account their faith extra as an expression of their tradition than a supply of teachings to tell their every day decision-making. Some Spiritual Secularists might describe themselves as agnostic and even atheist.
Lastly, 18% of Individuals are Nonreligionists: These are individuals we described above as not having any faith of their lives, however neither have they got a secular worldview. They’re outlined by what they don’t seem to be, not what they’re.
Political beliefs
These 4 teams range in whether or not they’re politically engaged – and in that case, whom they assist.
In our book about America’s “secular surge” we used knowledge from a nationwide survey in 2017. In 2021, we carried out a second wave of that survey.
In keeping with knowledge from that survey that we analyzed for this text, Religionists and Secularists are about equally more likely to become involved in politics: roughly 30% of each teams reported doing one thing political previously 12 months, corresponding to attending a rally, volunteering for a candidate or donating cash. Nonreligionists have been a lot much less seemingly: solely 17%.
In truth, irrespective of the type of civic engagement – voting, volunteering – Nonreligionists have been constantly the least likely to be involved. Solely 30% of Nonreligionists report belonging to any kind of membership or group, whereas for the remainder of the inhabitants, it’s nearer to 50%.
In the identical 2021 survey, we requested individuals to charge numerous politicians on a 0-100 scale, with the next quantity which means a extra optimistic view.
On common, Religionists rated Trump a 61, the very best of the 4 teams; Secularists give him the bottom rating, at 14. Nonreligionists gave Trump 47 factors.
It will be mistaken, nevertheless, to name the Nonreligionists an ideologically conservative group.
Contemplate their scores of Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democratic Celebration however describes himself as a democratic socialist. For 3 of the teams, assist for Sanders was the mirror reverse of their emotions towards Trump, a Republican. Secularists, for example, gave the Vermont senator a comparatively excessive rating of 66, on common; Religionists’ emotions towards him are a lot cooler, at 32 factors.
In contrast, Nonreligionists gave a virtually equivalent score to Trump and Sanders. Provided that the 2 males are at reverse ideological poles, how might Nonreligionists charge them the identical? We suspect it’s as a result of each figures challenge the status quo.
In 2024, the Trump campaign worked to mobilize “low-propensity voters”: political jargon for individuals with the low ranges of civic engagement usually discovered among Nonreligionists. Not solely are they politically disengaged, they’re the probably to mix being younger, male, white and with out a faculty diploma.
A ‘secular left’?
Secularists, too, are disproportionately younger and white. However in different methods they’re very different from Nonreligionists. Secularists usually have a university diploma and are evenly balanced between ladies and men. Sometimes, they’re additionally liberal and extremely engaged in politics.
So how will they form American politics? The reply might rely on whether or not Secularists cohere right into a motion – a secular left to parallel the spiritual proper.
At the moment, extremely spiritual conservatives are a vocal group within American politics, the core of the Republican Celebration. A era in the past, nevertheless, they have been a disparate group of individuals from totally different Christian denominations, from Baptists to Pentecostals. Most of the spiritual teams that now march in common cause as soon as had sharp disagreements.
It stays to be seen whether secular voters will organize in an identical manner. Both manner, it’s protected to say America’s spiritual composition has modified considerably.
Don’t assume, nevertheless, {that a} flip away from faith essentially means a pointy flip towards the political left. We’d warning that the story is extra sophisticated. For now, secular voters lean to the left – however nonreligious voters are up for grabs.
