They’re Not Coming Back: The Religiously Unaffiliated and the Post-Religious Era

The wistful refrain among religionists has for some time now been the same: the religiously unaffiliated will return to religious practice one of these days. New numbers from a survey jointly conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service, however, might crush whatever hope is left about luring Nones back into the fold.

The survey follows up on Pew’s recent studies of the same demographic of religiously unaffiliated Americans, but shows an even sharper increase in their numbers. According to PRRI, in 1990 the religiously unaffiliated made up only 6 percent of adults. From 1998 to 2004, that percentage held steady at around 14 percent, but today, 25 percent of Americans “claim no formal religious identity.” This percentage continues to primarily consist of adults under the age of 50. The survey also makes it clear that this decline began among those who were young adults in the ’90s, and has only sped up today.

That percentage means there are more Americans who are unaffiliated with religion than there are practicing Catholics....
http://religiondispatches.org/theyre-not-coming-back-the-religiously-unaffiliated-and-the-post-religious-era/