Gallup has been conducting polls about religious beliefs in the USA since the 1930s. For the first time less than 50% of U.S. adults (47%) reported to belong to a church, synagogue or mosque. The non-religious people are not a homogeneous group. There are convinced atheists, uncertain agnostics, and people who describe themselves as 'nothing-in-particulars', who mostly don't care.
The survey was covered by The Economist, who explains that the "nothing-in-particulars are largely drawn from that segment of Americans who have become disaffected as they have seen their economic prospects sink with recessions and the loss of well-paid blue-collar jobs." While Atheists are usually better educated than average and more Left leaning politically, the nothing-in-particulars are less educated and tend to be apolitical, or at least neither Left nor Right.
What is interesting is that religious affiliation has been decreasing among all age groups. It's not just the younger generations that are less religious. As you can see in the Gallup report, in the last 20 years, church membership has fallen by 11% among Traditionalists (people born before 1946), 8% among Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), 12% among the Generation X (born 1965-1980). Millennials (born 1981-1996) have even lost 15% of church membership in the last 10 years only!
The survey was covered by The Economist, who explains that the "nothing-in-particulars are largely drawn from that segment of Americans who have become disaffected as they have seen their economic prospects sink with recessions and the loss of well-paid blue-collar jobs." While Atheists are usually better educated than average and more Left leaning politically, the nothing-in-particulars are less educated and tend to be apolitical, or at least neither Left nor Right.
What is interesting is that religious affiliation has been decreasing among all age groups. It's not just the younger generations that are less religious. As you can see in the Gallup report, in the last 20 years, church membership has fallen by 11% among Traditionalists (people born before 1946), 8% among Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), 12% among the Generation X (born 1965-1980). Millennials (born 1981-1996) have even lost 15% of church membership in the last 10 years only!