After climbing for decades, the percentage of Americans without religion At Le Nivelé. In recent years, the share of adults who identify themselves as an atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” rose from around 29%, according to a major study that the Pew Research Center published on February 26, 2025.
But that hardly means that the “nones”, or their impact on American life, disappear. In fact, their size is likely that they will increase in political importance.
It is probably not surprising that many secular voters lean on political left. It may however be surprising to learn that a fairly large number of non -religious voters Supported President Donald Trump in the 2020 and 2024 elections.
If the paragraph above is a shoemaker, that is to say that “non-religious” and “secular” are often treated as two ways of saying the same thing. But as political scientist that study religion – And The absence of this – We found that there is a fundamental difference between the two. While conventional wisdom argues that religious voters are republicans and that non -religious voters are democratic, reality is more complicated.
Non -religious vs laïque
So what is the difference between non -religious people compared to those who are secular?
Non -religious tend to define themselves by what they are not: for example, not belonging to a religion, without attending worship services, and not to believe in God. In our surveys, many people without religious affiliation do not cite any vision or philosophy of the world in particular when they have been asked what guides their lives.
Secular people, on the other hand, define themselves by what they are: someone who adopted a vision of the humanist and even scientific world. In other words, when they were asked where they find the truth, they turn to sources such as science and philosophy instead of religious scriptures and teachings. Often, they identify themselves as an atheist, agnostic or humanist.
However, there are secular people who also embrace certain aspects of faith. Religiosity and secularism are not in a zero -sum relationship: more than one does not necessarily mean less to the other. In our research, we have found many cases of people who belong to a religious congregation Still have a vision of the secular world: This describes many Jews, main and even Catholics, for example.
4 groups
To have a better sense of opinions of Americans, for more than a decade, we have worked to develop questions to identify people with a secular perspective, while asking questions about religious commitment, such as the frequency to which someone attends services. Our results culminated in the 2021 book “Laïque Surge: a new line of flaw in American politics. “”
Based on the results, we can divide the American population into four groups: religionists, non-religious, lay people and religious lay people.
The category of religionists includes people of all confessions. At 41%, it is the largest group in the United States, but they do not form the majority.
Laïcs represent 27% of the population – larger than the percentage of all religious tradition. Evangelical Christians, for example, represent 23% of the American population, According to PewAnd Catholics are 19%.
14% of Americans are what we call religious laity: people who identify with and participate in a religious community, but have a vision of the secular world. They could attend worship services, but to consider their religion more as an expression of their culture than as a source of lessons to clarify their daily decision -making. Some religious lay people can be described as agnostics or even atheists.
Finally, 18% of Americans are not religious: they are people that we have described above as having no religion in their lives, but they do not have a vision of the secular world either. They are defined by what they are not, not what they are.
Political opinions
These four groups vary to be politically engaged – and if so, they support.
In Our book on “The secular overvoltage of the United States“We used data from a national survey in 2017. In 2021, we conducted A second wave of this investigation.
According to data from this survey that we have analyzed for this article, religionists and laity are almost likely to get involved in politics: around 30% of the two groups said they had done something political in the past 12 months, such as attending a rally, volunteering for a candidate or a donation of money. The non-religious were much less likely: only 17%.
In fact, regardless of the form of civic commitment – voteBOURVERING – The non -religious were systematically the the least likely to be involved. Only 30% of non-religious people say they belong to any kind of club or organization, while for the rest of the population, it is closer to 50%.
In the same survey in 2021, we asked people to assess various politicians on a scale of 0 to 100, with a higher number, which means a more positive point of view.
On average, religionists evaluated Trump a 61, the highest of the four groups; The laity give him the lowest score, at 14 years old. The non-religious gave Trump 47 points.
However, it would be false to call the non -religious an ideologically conservative group.
Consider their notes from Bernie Sanders, who caucus with the Democratic Party but describes himself as a democratic socialist. For three of the groups, support for Sanders was the mirror in front of their feelings towards Trump, a republican. The laity, for example, gave the Senator of Vermont a relatively high score of 66, on average; The feelings of religionists towards him are much cooler, at 32 points.
On the other hand, the non-religious gave an almost identical note to Trump and Sanders. Since the two men are at opposite ideological poles, how could non-religious evaluate them in the same way? We suspect it is because the two figures DEFARE THE STATUM.
In 2024, the The Trump campaign worked to mobilize “Low propensity voters”: political jargon for people with low civic levels often found Among the non-religious. Not only are they politically disengagedThey are the most likely to combine being young, men, white and without university diploma.
A “secular left”?
Laïcs are also disproportionately young and white. But in other respects, they are very different from non-religious. Laïcs generally have a university degree and are also balanced between women and men. As a rule, they are also liberal and very committed to politics.
So how will they shape American politics? The answer may depend on the question of whether the lay people lift in a movement – a secular left for parallel to the religious right.
Today, the very religious conservatives are A vocal group in American politicsThe heart of the Republican Party. There is a generation, however, they were a disparate group of people from different Christian confessions, from Baptists to Pentecostalists. Many religious groups that now March in question Once he had strong disagreements.
It remains to be seen If secular voters will organize similarly. Anyway, it is sure to say that the American religious composition has changed considerably.
Do not assume, however, that a diversion of religion necessarily means a clear turn to the political left. We warn that the story is more complicated. For the moment, secular voters are leaning on the left – but non -religious voters are to be won.