Religious ‘nones’ reach record high in US

Americans with no formal religious identity, popularly often called the “nones,” reached a record share of the population in 2025, in line with Gallup data that shows fewer than 50% of adults also report that religion is “very necessary” of their lives.

The findings, based on interviews with greater than 13,000 U.S. adults across Gallup’s monthly 2025 surveys, show that the share of Americans identifying as “nones” reached a recent high of 24%, up from 21% to 22% over the previous 4 years. The share of Americans identifying as “nones” has grown steadily from 2% in 1948 to its current record.

In addition to the quarter of American adults identifying as “nones,” some 28% have said religion is “not very necessary” of their lives, which has remained constant since 2022.

Less than half (47%) of American adults say religion is “very necessary” of their lives, while one other 25% said it’s “fairly necessary” to them.

The share of Americans who say religion is “very necessary” of their lives has registered below 50% lately. It has been in gradual decline from 58% in 2012, and 70% to 75% within the Fifties and Sixties, in line with Gallup.

“Americans’ relationship with religion continues to evolve, marked by fewer adults describing religion as central to their lives, rising religious non-affiliation and persistently low levels of non secular service attendance,” Megan Brenan, a senior editor at Gallup, concluded.

The survey shows that while a majority of all demographic groups in America said their faith was very necessary to them from 2001 to 2005, only six groups remain highly religious, well over 50% today. They are: Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Republicans, Protestant or non-denominational Christians, black adults, adults aged 65 and older, and Southerners, said Gallup. Majorities of lower-income Americans, women, and people aged 50 to 64 also report that religion may be very necessary to them.

“While religion stays deeply necessary to major segments of the population (Republicans, Protestants, Black adults, older Americans, and Southerners particularly), the long-term trajectory shows a gentle decline driven largely by generational substitute,” Brennan said. “Younger adults are each less prone to discover with a faith and fewer prone to attend services, reshaping the nation’s religious landscape as they constitute a growing share of the population.”

In “Breaking Free of the Iron Cage: The Individualization of American Religion,” published within the peer-reviewed open-access academic journal Socius last 12 months, researchers suggested that more Americans are leaving organized religion in the hunt for personalized faith perspectives that embrace syncretism — a fusion of various religions.

“Our evaluation shows how young individuals are responding to the bureaucratization and rationalization that [German sociologist Max] Weber predicted would create an ‘iron cage’ in modern institutions, developing recent forms of non secular and spiritual expression outside formal institutions,” the researchers wrote.

“We bring the iron cage argument back to religion, making the case that rising individualization and autonomy reflected within the Sixties countercultural movement set the stage for a revolution against the bureaucratization and politicization of faith.”

© The Christian Post