Number of nones equals evangelicals, Catholics
A recent analysis of survey data also showed an uptick in the percentage of mainline Protestants—though more years will need to pass to see if the increase continues.
People who don’t affiliate with any specific faith tradition are now tied with Catholics and evangelicals as the largest religious groupings in the country, according to a recently released analysis of 2018 survey data. Each accounted for roughly 23 percent of respondents.
People claiming a religious preference that researchers tied to evangelicalism dipped to 22.5 percent of Americans from 23.9 percent in 2016, and Catholics also decreased slightly. In the same time period, the percentage of mainline Protestants increased from 10.2 percent to 10.8 percent.
Ryan P. Burge of Eastern Illinois University, who analyzed the 2018 General Social Survey data, highlighted that Americans claiming “no religion”—sometimes referred to as “nones” because of how they answer the question, What is your religious tradition?—now represent about 23.1 percent of the population, up from 21.6 percent in 2016.
