56,000,000 (17%) (answered "No" to the question "Do you believe in God?") (2017)[1] 9,571,112 (3.1%) (self described atheists) (2014)[2][3]
Religions
Irreligion: (including antitheism, agnostic atheism, apatheism, casualism, counter-apologeticism, debaptism evangelical atheism, freethought/freethinker, ignosticism, implicit and explicit atheism, Marxist–Leninist atheism, negative and positive atheism, nonbeliever, nontheism, post-theism, rationalism, new/scientific atheism, physicalism, metaphysical naturalism, logicalism, secular humanism, skepticism, etc.) Secular religions: Buddhism (including secular Buddhism, etc.) Christian atheism (including Cultural Christian (Cultural Catholic, Cultural Mormon, Nontheist Quakers, etc.), Lapsed Catholic, Recovering Catholic etc.) Ethical movement Hinduism (including Adevism, Charvaka, Hindu atheist, etc.) Jainism Jewish atheism (including Cultural Judaism, etc.) Modern Paganism Muslim atheism (including Cultural Muslim, etc.) New religious movements (including Creativity, Raëlism, etc.) Parody religions (including Church of Satan, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster/Pastafarianism, Invisible Pink Unicorn, Jediism, LaVeyan Satanism, etc.) Satanism Unitarian Universalism
Part of a series on
Atheism
Concepts
Implicit and explicit atheism
Naturalism
Negative and positive atheism
History
History of atheism
Atheism during the Age of Enlightenment
New Atheism
Society
Atheist feminism
Criticism of religion
Demographics of atheism
Discrimination against atheists
Secular ethics
Secularism
Separation of church and state
State atheism
Arguments
Arguments for atheism
Atheist's wager
Creator of God
Evil God challenge
Fate of the unlearned
Free will
God of the gaps
Hitchens's razor
Incompatible properties
Inconsistent revelation
Nonbelief
Occam's razor
Omnipotence paradox
Parody religion
Poor design
Problem of evil
Problem of Hell
Russell's teapot
Theological noncognitivism
People
Lists of atheists
Julian Baggini
Mikhail Bakunin
Mario Bunge
Albert Camus
Richard Dawkins
Daniel Dennett
Denis Diderot
Ludwig Feuerbach
A. C. Grayling
Sam Harris
Christopher Hitchens
Baron d'Holbach
Lawrence Krauss
Michael Lou Martin
Karl Marx
Jean Meslier
Friedrich Nietzsche
Michel Onfray
Bertrand Russell
Peter Singer
Victor J. Stenger
Books
Atheism: The Case Against God
Breaking the Spell
De rerum natura
The End of Faith
The God Delusion
God Is Not Great
The System of Nature
Related stances
Irreligion
Agnosticism
Freethought
Secular humanism
Atheism and religion
Christian
Hindu
Buddhist
Jewish
Muslim
Theism
Criticism of atheism
Outline
Category
Philosophy portal
WikiProject
v
t
e
According to sociologists as of 2022, "the proportion of atheists in the US has held steady at 3% to 4% for more than 80 years."[4] According to the Pew Research Center in a 2014 survey, self-identified atheists make up 3.1% of the US population, even though 9% of Americans agreed with the statement "Do not believe in God" while 2% agreed with the statement "Do not know if they believe in God".[3] Other polling by Gallup in 2022 showed that 17% of respondents replied "No" when asked "Do you believe in God?", and another from 2023 found that 12% of respondents replied they "Do not believe in" God with 14% replying they were "Not sure about" the existence of God.[5] Regardless of question or polling service, there is evidence the number of people not believing in God is increasing.[5]
According to the 2014 General Sociological Survey, the number of atheists and agnostics in the U.S. grew over the previous 23 years. In 1991, only 2% identified as atheist, and 4% identified as agnostic; while in 2014, 3.1% identified as atheists, and 5% identified as agnostics.[6]
In 2009, Pew stated that only 5% of the US population did not have a belief in a god and out of that small group only 24% self-identified as "atheist", while 15% self-identified as "agnostic" and 35% self-identified as "nothing in particular".[7]
According to the 2008 ARIS, only 2% the US population was atheist, while 10% were agnostics.[8]
One 2018 research paper using indirect methods estimated that 26% of Americans are atheists, which is much higher than the 3%-11% rates that are consistently found in surveys.[9] However, methodological problems have been identified with this particular study; in particular, it has been posted that many people might not have a binary outlook to the question of the existence of God.[10]
Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism and self-identification are context dependent by culture.[11]
^"Religion". 8 June 2007.
^Bureau, U.S. Census. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2017-03-22.
^ ab"Religious Landscape Study". Pew Research Center. 2014. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
^Johnson, Byron R.; Levin, Jeff (2022-07-28). "Religion Is Dying? Don't Believe It". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
^ abInc, Gallup (2007-06-08). "Religion". Gallup.com. Retrieved 2024-03-14. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
^Hout, Michael; Smith, Tom (March 2015). "Fewer Americans Affiliate with Organized Religions, Belief and Practice Unchanged: Key Findings from the 2014 General Social Survey" (PDF). General Social Survey. NORC. The percentage answering 'no religion' was 21 percent in 2014, 20 percent in 2012, just 14 percent as recently as 2000, and only 8 percent in 1990." & "In 2014, 3 percent of Americans did not believe in God and 5 percent expressed an agnostic view; the comparable percentages were 2 percent and 4 percent in 1991. More people believed in a 'higher power' in 2014 (13%) than in 1991 (7%).
^"Not All Nonbelievers Call Themselves Atheists | Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project". Pewforum.org. 2009-04-02. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
^Kosmin, Barry; Keysar, Ariela (2009). "American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population" (PDF). Trinity College.
^Gervais, Will M.; Najle, Maxine B. (2018). "How many atheists are there?". Social Psychological and Personality Science. 9: 3–10. doi:10.1177/1948550617707015.
^Resnick, Brian (13 April 2017). "How many American atheists are there really?". Vox. Vox Media. Vox Media. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
^Zuckerman, Phil (2007), "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", Cambridge Companion to Atheism, pp. 47–66, doi:10.1017/CCOL0521842700.004
and 29 Related for: Atheism in the United States information
Also in some countries and regions atheism carries a strong stigma, making it harder to count atheists in these countries. In global studies, the number...
High rates of atheism have been found among self-identified Christians intheUnitedStates. Out of all Americans who do not believe in God, 5% identified...
State atheism or atheist state is the incorporation of hard atheism or non-theism into political regimes. It is considered the opposite of theocracy and...
The term New Atheism describes the positions of some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries. New Atheism...
Atheism, inthe broadest sense, is an absence of belief inthe existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities...
described as "one of the most widely read and debated American philosophers". He was referred to as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, along with Richard...
Atheism is the rejection of an assertion that a deity exists. In a narrower sense, hard atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
Religion intheUnitedStates is widespread, diverse, and vibrant, with the country being far more religious than other wealthy Western nations. An overwhelming...
Jewish atheism refers to theatheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish. Contrary to popular belief, the term...
existed intheUnitedStates. Most Jewish community relations agencies intheUnitedStates draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms...
reflected in discriminatory laws, practices, and actions (including violence) against "racial" or ethnic groups throughout the history of theUnitedStates. Since...
Conservatism intheUnitedStates is based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental...
conviction in a court-martial while intheUnitedStates Air Force; however, he was still able to buy the weapons because the Air Force did not report the conviction...
agnosticism, atheism, freethought, humanism, secularism, and other nontheistic viewpoints particularly relevant to nonbelievers and skeptics of the paranormal...
in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, and theUnited Kingdom. Co-founded by Lucien Greaves, the organization's spokesperson, and Malcolm Jarry, the...
all theism- and atheism-related views are welcome, because of the large number of Christians intheUnitedStates and their influence in American politics...
includes atheists born in, became citizens of, or lived intheUnitedStates. This list is arranged by surname. AtheismintheUnitedStates Portals: Religion...
2019, assemblies are established in 48 locations around the world with the majority in Europe and theUnitedStates, and are run and funded by volunteers...
In contrast to the horrors of European history, John Higham states that intheUnitedStates "no decisive event, no deep crisis, no powerful social movement...
Whether they believe inthe Devil or God, they are abdicating reason." He added, "Satanism begins with atheism. We begin with the universe and say, 'It’s...
intolerance towards atheists and atheism or even the complete denial of atheists' existence. It is often expressed in distrust regardless of its manifestation...
annually on the first Thursday in May, in response to the statutory observance of a National Day of Prayer intheUnitedStates, which many atheist and secular...
Christian atheism embraces the teachings, narratives, symbols, practices, or communities associated with Christianity without accepting the literal existence...
have been Jewish communities intheUnitedStates since colonial times, with individuals living in various cities before the American Revolution. Early...
(2002) Irreligion intheUnitedStates New atheism Secular humanism Aratani, Lori, " 'Godless Rally' in D.C. for Recognition and Respect", The Washington Post...
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization intheUnitedStates that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association...
Global Information
56,000,000 (17%)
