New Survey Finds Significant Growth of the "Unaffiliated"

The New York Times on February 26th reported that a new, exhaustive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found a marked increase in those who claim no religious affiliation. The "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" found that the unaffiliated now comprise 16.1% of all American adults. In the 1980s only five to eight per cent of Americans identified as unaffiliated, making the growth rate of the unaffiliated the largest of any religious group. Moreover, when the figures are broken down by age, the survey found that fully one quarter of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 identify as unaffiliated, signaling a growth of this sector in the future.

This sounds promising for Ethical Culture in that the pool from which we draw would seem to be dramatically expanding. However, as with all broad surveys, the picture is more complex. When the 16.1% of unaffiliated is parsed, a more subtle picture emerges. 5.8% of the American population with the unaffiliated group state that religion remains very important to them. 1.6% of all American adults are atheists, 2.4% agnostic and 6.3% secular unaffiliated.

Overall the survey depicts an American religious marketplace which is extraordinarily fluid and competitive with a great deal of religious switching. In fact, it is shown that 26% of all Americans have left the faith in which they were raised for another or have joined the unaffiliated.

Does the growth of the unaffiliated sector augur well for the growth of Ethical Culture? At first glance we would think so. But we need recall that although Ethical Culture appeals to secular people, agnostics and atheists most of all, it remains a positive affiliation. Have those who have left traditional religions done so because of the content of those religions, or because the idea of affiliation itself has become burdensome? If the former, the pool from which we draw has expanded. If the latter, maybe not. Or, perhaps, many of the switchers are likely to move directly from their traditional affiliation to affiliation with Ethical Culture without passing through the unaffiliated category. We don't know, and the survey cannot tell us that. But overall, the growth of those who have become unaffiliated does highlight the capacity for choice, growing disenchantment with traditional religion and, on its face, seems to be a challenging and promising shift in American demography.