The proportion of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation doubled over the last decade and now stands at 16% of the population, according to a new study on religious identity.
Only Catholics (24%) and Baptists (17%) outnumber the so-called "non-identifiers," or "nones," said the report -- "The Decline of Religious Identity in the United States" -- by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday November 02, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Religiously unaffiliated Americans -- An article in Saturday's California section about the growing percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans said the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life was on the UCLA campus. The center is on Hilgard Avenue across from the university.
The nationwide survey, based on telephone interviews with more than 10,000 randomly selected people, said about one in six answered "none" or "no religion" or described themselves as secular, humanist, ethical-culturalist, agnostic or atheist.
Their ranks will continue to grow, and they'll soon outnumber Baptists, according to Gary A. Tobin, president of the institute and a coauthor of the study.
"They may believe in God," he said of the unaffiliated. "The question is: Why don't they want to be associated with some religious denomination? It's probably time for organized religion to take a look at itself and see what they should be doing differently or better to involve more people."
The Rev. Tim Osborn said the only thing about the study that surprised him was that the number of "nones" was not higher. For organized religion, surveys such as this are a "reality check" that must be heeded, Osborn said. He is pastor of Warehouse, a lively communal worship service for young people at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena that attempts to reverse such trends.
Americans younger than 35 are most likely to be nonidentifiers, and those over 65 are least likely to be unaffiliated, the study said. Residents of the West lead the nation in the proportion of those who don't identity with a religion -- 24% compared to 14% for the rest of the country except New England, which had 21%. Men are less likely to identify with a religious denomination than women, 20% to 13%.
The study also found that those raised without a religion are much more likely than others to have children who have no religion. And in mixed-religion families, children reared in both parents' religions are more likely not to choose any religion.
"When you ask the child to choose a religion, in essence, you're asking the child to choose a parent," Tobin said. "Rather than choose a religion of a parent, they'll say I am not going to choose either."
