politics
Religiously unaffiliated voters now 29 percent of U.S. adults
The share of Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated reached 29 percent in recent data, surpassing Catholics and evangelical Protestants. Campaigns report higher per-voter costs to contact this group because it lacks centralized networks.
May 25, 5:27 AM·1m read1 source
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A record 29 percent of U.S. adults now identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to Pew Research Center data cited in the reporting. This figure exceeds the shares identifying as Catholic (19 percent) or evangelical Protestant (23 percent). Among adults ages 18-29, roughly four in ten are unaffiliated, per the Public Religion Research Institute.
About one-third of Democrats and independents identify as nonreligious, compared with roughly 13 percent of Republicans.
Campaign outreach costs Campaigns spent about $1.40 per nonreligious voter versus roughly 45 cents per religiously affiliated voter in 2024, a Democratic consultant with the Nevada-based firm TriStrategies told Axios. Religious voters can be reached through existing mailing lists or places of worship, while nonreligious voters require digital ads, canvassing, and issue-based persuasion.
"For religious voters, all I have to do is send a mailer and say I believe in God and apple pie," the consultant said. "For nonreligious voters, I need to send a list of issues with links so they can verify and be ready for questions.
