According to the latest Gallup poll, the percentage of Americans who believe in God is still in the 90s… but there’s been a significant drop since the last time the question was asked in 1967, from 98% to 92%.

They didn’t ask the question between those years, but I’d guess than most of the drop happened in the past decade.

There is a margin of error here, but I’ve never seen the percentage of actual atheists (and not just “nones”) as high as 7%. That’s a huge deal.

But what if you take into account people who don’t believe in “God,” per se, but who believe in a “universal spirit”?

They shouldn’t count in our numbers.

No matter, though. It turns out the percentage still drops, from 96% to 91%. And (with the margin of error) the percentage of atheists is at 8%!

So, breaking that down a little further, which groups are less likely to believe in God?

A lower percentage of men believe in god (90%) than women (94%).

Those aged 18-29 are less likely to believe in God (84%) than those 65+ (94%).

This isn’t shocking: The more educated you are, the less likely you are to believe in God. 87% of people with a postgraduate education believe in God compared to 92% of people with only a high school education. (Curiously, though, college grads are at 94%…)

Liberals (85%) are less likely to believe than Conservatives (98%), Democrats (90%) are less likely to believe than Republicans (98%), and Easterners (86%) are less likely to believe than Southerners (96%).

In other words, all the stereotypes you had before still hold true.

(Thanks to Masada for the link!)



