Americans who are religiously unaffiliated or are religious non-Christians are a growing slice of the population, and they lean heavily Democratic, as do non-white Christians.
These countries are often rated as some of the happiest places in the world, despite also having large numbers of religiously unaffiliated or inactively religious people.
"At 22percentthethe religiously unaffiliated rival other major religious groups in size, such as American Catholics, who make up 22percentt of the population," PRRI's Joanna Piacenza wrote.
Most of them are joining the religiously unaffiliated, the fastest-growing religious category, expected to rise 10percentt by 2050.
Whatever the designation or description, however, "Nones" comprise mostly those formerly religious persons who are now religiously unaffiliated.
Although some religiously unaffiliated folk do attend religious services, this was a rare enough occurrence that it didn't make a statistical difference in the report, Pew said.
Meanwhile, nearly one-quarter of Americans place themselves in the broad category of religious "nones" — those who are religiously unaffiliated or simply don't believe in God.
The recent PEW Research Center findings on America's religious landscape revealed that approximately 56 million Americans are religiously unaffiliated and belong to the category of religious "nones".
For more on the religiously unaffiliated, watch Religion and Ethics News Weeklys "None of the Above: The Rise of the Religiously Unaffiliated" miniseries this month on PBS.
In fact, the majority of the religiously unaffiliated seem to carry some beliefs associated with religious thinking.
At the same time, among religious categories Obama's biggest percentage of support came from religiously unaffiliated voters.
