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The American Atheist News reported in November 2001 the American Religious Identification Survey 2001 carried out under the auspices of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. It is considered a follow-up study of a 1990 census.
The survey and news reports about the study noted that one of the most significant findings involved growth in that segment of the adult population "identifying with no religion."
In 1990, 14.3 million or roughly 8% identified with this category. The new ARIS count now shows that the non-believer population has grown to 29.4
million, roughly 14.1% of the American community. The ARIS team notes that the 1990 figure "may be downwardly biased due to a slight change in the working of the key survey question in 2001. In seeking a more accurate measure of identification, the clause 'if any' was added this year to the question, 'What religion do you identify with?'"
Jews and Hispanics were among the ethnic groups surveyed by ARIS. Fifty-seven percent of those identified as Hispanic also indicated their religion as Roman Catholic, with 22% listing their faith as one of the Protestant denominations. "Other religious identification" stood at 5%, and 12% of Hispanics "indicated that they have no religion."
There are about 5.3 million Jews in America, with only 2.83 million saying that they are believers in the Jewish faith. A full 1.08 million were "adherents of no religion," and 1.36 million identified as Jews embraced a faith other than Judaism.
More Americans do not identify with any particular religion. In 1990, 90% of adults considered themselves part of a faith-based group; that figure has now dropped to 81%. Those considering themselves to be Christians stood at 86% in 1990, but now only 77% do.
Interestingly, it is "non-mainstream" denominations which seem to be gathering more followers, although they constitute less than 1% of the population. Based on responses, Scientology presently has 55,000 (up from 45,000 a decade ago); Unitarian / Universalists stand at 629,000; and Ethical Culturalists at 4,000.
Terminology seems to play a major role in how non-believers distinguish themselves within their own demographic category. The 1990 survey included three descriptions (without definitions), "Agnostic," "Humanist" and "No Religion." A decade ago, that described an estimated 14,331,000 people, or roughly 8.2% of the population.
According to the ARIS 2001 survey, the total "No Religion Specified" category has grown to 29,481,000, roughly 14.1% of the population. That figure could be low, since 5.4% of potential respondents refused to discuss their preference, if any, for faith. Within the "No Religion Groups," the latest survey measured the three categories from the 1990 census, with new descriptions for "Atheist" and "Secular." In the latter category, 902,000 or roughly 0.4% identify as Atheists to the telephone survey. Slightly larger is the "Agnostic" category, an estimated 991,000 individuals representing 0.5%.
Humanists came in at an estimated 49,000, with only 53,000 under the category of "Secular." Contrary to perceptions in many non-believer circles, "Atheist" seems to be the label of choice more often within our segment of the population than "Humanist" or "Secular." "Agnostic" is slightly ahead, with most simply referring to themselves as having "No Religion."
Those Americans of "No Religion," the "un-churched," exceed the numbers of adherents in all but the two top Christian sects (Catholics and Baptists). Even the number of those identified as "Atheist" is larger than denominations such as Seventh-day Adventist, Assemblies of God, Eastern Orthodox, United Church of Christ and the Church of God.
Religious belief / disbelief were broken down further by the ARIS census. Women, for instance, were more likely than men to describe their personal outlook as religious, as were older Americans in general. Black Americans were least likely to describe themselves as secular, while Asian Americans were most likely to do so.
The ARIS study found "More than thirty-three million American adults, about 16% of the total U.S. adult population report that they have changed their religious preference or identification." The phrase "a generation of seekers" is applied to those who are middle-aged baby boomers. The survey also notes,
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