2017 American Family Survey AEI & Brookings

[oliver_denom]

I missed this survey when it was released last year:
http://www.aei.org/events/the-american- ... ly-survey/

But I thought there were some interesting numbers in the appendix:
https://www.deseretnews.com/media/misc/ ... Report.pdf

Since I currently consider myself "Nothing in particular", I was fascinated that this group alone is the second largest among those surveyed, larger than Roman Catholocism. I also noticed that the percentage of Mormons seems to have shrunk from survey's past. Usually they will show up around 1.7 to 1.9% and get rounded up to 2% of the population. Seeing here that they've been rounded down makes me think that they clocked in somewhere below 1.5%.

If you add "Nothing in particular" + Atheist + Agnostic, then you end up with 34% or over 1/3 of the population who is not affiliated with any religion. You can't say much more than that, because I would imagine that a large chunk of the "Nothing in particular" group still consider themselves some sort of Christian or other religion in a general sense, but just not affiliated with them.

157. What is your present religion, if any?
(N = 3000)
Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33%
Roman Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21%
Mormon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1%
Eastern or Greek Orthodox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1%
Jewish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2%
Muslim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2%
Buddhist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0%
Hindu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1%
Atheist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Agnostic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Nothing in particular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23%
Something else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4%

35% say either not too important or not important at all.

161. How important is religion in your life?
(N = 3000)
Very important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37%
Somewhat important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28%
Not too important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Not at all important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21%

[Jeffret]

Interesting.

Yes, the "None of the above" or "Nones" as they are sometimes simply known are one of the biggest religion "groups" in America. And certainly the fastest growing. The majority of them are not necessarily atheist or even agnostic. They retain some sort of belief, though they often would classify themselves more as spiritual than religious. They're unaffiliated with any religion. Unchurched. They're having an impact on society. In Boy Scout Roundtable a while back we talked about how many parents these days are not raising their kids with specific religious affiliation and we need to accept and account for that.

I've edited this list to put the percentages from the 2016 study in parentheses. In 2015, the first time they ran this survey, they didn't publish anything about religious affiliation.

157. What is your present religion, if any?
(N = 3000)
Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33% (34%)
Roman Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21% (21%)
Mormon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% (1%)
Eastern or Greek Orthodox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% (1%)
Jewish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2% (2%)
Muslim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2% (1%)
Buddhist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (1%)
Hindu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% (0%)
Atheist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5% (6%)
Agnostic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6% (6%)
Nothing in particular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23% (20%)
Something else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4% (4%)

With a +/- 2.5% margin of error, there is only one change between the two years that isn't within the error range, the 3% increase for "Nothing in particular".

[deacon blues]

If I were to fill out the survey I might put down more than one, depending on the day, but beliefs are different than a allegiance to a church.

[Corsair]

I think that Mormon might be edged out by "Jedi" if that was an option on this survey.

[Reuben]

I also noticed that the percentage of Mormons seems to have shrunk from survey's past. Usually they will show up around 1.7 to 1.9% and get rounded up to 2% of the population. Seeing here that they've been rounded down makes me think that they clocked in somewhere below 1.5%.

Having done a lot of Monte Carlo simulations, with N=3000, I wouldn't trust the digit in the 1's place very much. The difference in this case is probably just sampling error.