Explaining the Rise of Americans With No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations*

The proportion of Americans who reported no religious preference doubled from 7 to 14 percent in the second half of the 1990s, according to data from the General Social Survey. This dramatic change may be the result of demographic shifts, increasing skepticism, or the politicization of religion. Part of the increase reflects a succession of generations; the percentage of adults who had been raised with no religion increased from 2 percent to 6 percent. Other sociodemographic factors also contributed to the increase. Religious skepticism is an unlikely explanation: Most people with no preference hold conventional religious beliefs, despite their alienation from organized religion. These “unchurched believers” made up most of the increase in “no religion” responses. Politics is the key additional factor. While the percentage of political moderates and liberals who reported no religion grew rapidly between 1991 and 2000, the religious preferences of political conservatives did not change. We suggest that a noteworthy part of the increase in “Nones” is a symbolic statement against the Religious Right. *This research is part of the “USA: A Century of Difference” project funded by the Russell Sage Foundation (website: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu/rsfcensus). We had additional support from the Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, and the National Science Foundation (through its grant to the GSS, SES-9617727). We have benefitted from the invaluable research assistance of Jon Stiles and from the comments of Clem Brooks, Paul Burstein, James A. Davis, Otis Dudley Duncan, Phillip Gorski, Andrew Greeley, Ann Swidler, and Melissa Wilde on the previous version of this article.