The number of atheists is increasing in the USA

The number of Americans who do not belong to any religion has increased in recent years, reaching 56 a million people, according to a report from the Pew Research Center, published Tuesday.

In terms of numbers, this social group is second only to evangelical Christians.

Christianity is still the dominant religion in the United States - about 70 percent of Americans consider themselves to be in this tradition. However, the number of Christians is declining, while the proportion of people who do not consider themselves to be religious has grown, the study says.

Between 2007 and 2014 the year when the Pugh Center conducted major research on the religious life of the United States, the proportion of Americans who consider themselves to be atheists, agnostic or not belonging to any particular religion has grown from 16 to almost 23 percent.

At the same time, the number of Christians has dropped from 78 to a little less than 71 percent. Today, Protestants make up 46,5 per cent of the population of a country that was once considered predominantly Protestant.

In the past year, slightly more than 7 percent of respondents said they were atheists or agnostics, while in the 2007 year there were 4 percent.

The increase in the number of non-religious people is also of political importance. Such people tend to vote for Democrats, while white evangelicals usually support Republicans.

As for other religions, the Pugh Center researchers have found an increase in the number of non-Christian religions, especially Muslims and Hindu adherents.

But despite this growth, their number remains small: each of these groups makes up less than 1 percent of the US population. The number of followers of Judaism during this period increased slightly - from 1,7 to 1,9 percent.