Godless Wednesday: 20% of Americans Are Irreligious

A new survey shows that the rate at which Americans are claiming to have "no religion" is continuing its rapid growth, having reached a record 20% of respondents in a nationally representative poll.

A summary of the analysis of the poll includes the following points:

• Liberals are far more likely to claim "no religion" (40 percent) than conservatives (9 percent)
• Men are more likely than women to claim "no religion" (24 percent of men versus 16 percent of women).
• More whites claimed "no religion" (21 percent) compared to African Americans (17 percent) and Mexican Americans (14 percent).
• More than one-third of 18-to-24-year-olds claimed "no religion" compared to just 7 percent of those 75 and older.
• Residents of the Midwestern and Southern states were least likely to claim "no religion" compared to respondents in the Western, Mountain and Northeastern states. But Midwesterners and Southerners are catching up, Hout said.
• Educational differences among those claiming "no religion" are small compared to other demographic differences.
• About one-third of Americans identify with a conservative Protestant denomination, one-quarter are Catholics (although 35 percent were raised Catholic) and 1.5 percent are Jewish.

Great news for a Godless Wednesday!

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God