Who are the Religious "Nones?"

Survey respondents who report "none" when asked for their religious affiliation are referred to as the religious "nones." This group of individuals is especially interesting because its share of the population has significantly increased in many countries during recent decades.

However, not all people who report "none" as their religious affiliation are the same. This can be seen in a Pew Research Report from last September. Many findings are reviewed in this report, and I will just point out a few of them.

First and foremost -- and this is what got the headline -- many nones hold some type of religious belief.  In the 22 countries they examined:

• About 1 in 5 nones believe in an afterlife.
• About 1 in 4 nones believe in God.
• About half of nones believe that "there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it."
• And about 60% of nones believe that "animals can have spirits or spiritual energies."

This is not to say that all of these people consider themselves religious. Most nones report that religion is "not important" or "not too important" in their lives, and by the standard measures the nones are less religious than those who do report a religious affiliation. Most nones in Western countries also report a belief that religion encourages intolerance, though the majority of nones in some other countries do not report the same.

There is much more in the report, so check it out, and keep in mind two big take-aways. First, the nones are a diverse group. The nones within one country can differ significantly from each other, and the nones in one country can differ significantly from nones in a different country. Second, the distinction between religious and not religious is a blurry one. A person can seem religious by one measure of religiosity and, at the same time, seem non-religious by another measure. This does not mean that the concept of religiosity is meaningless, but it does mean that we must accept some amount of imprecision when using the term. It also means there can be practical value in thinking of religiosity not as an either-or concept but as a matter of degrees.