Sutherland releases new report on America’s growing religious “nones”

SALT LAKE CITY (November 24, 2025) – Today, Sutherland Institute released a report about the results of a new survey of Americans’ opinions of religion in society. The survey, conducted by Heart+Mind Strategies, had a particular focus on the views of religiously unaffiliated Americans (“nones”) and what can lead those views to change.

Among the key findings:

• Exposure to facts about the value of religion has a tremendous impact. After being asked to respond to a list of factual statements about the benefits of religion, the proportion of “nones” who saw religion as part of the solution to society’s challenges doubled (23% to 46%).
• Sharing the facts about the benefits of religions had positive impacts across a number of subgroups of “nones”, including atheists/agnostics (+21 percentage points), the formerly religious (+23 percentage points), and those who identify as “nothing in particular” (+25 percentage points).
• In the general population, the proportion who saw religion as a solution went from 56% to 71%.
• Generation Z has the highest proportion of religiously unaffiliated at 34%.
• “Nones” most readily acknowledge religion’s psychological and communal 
  benefits — providing hope, meaning, and social support during life’s challenges. But they strongly resist claims about religion’s moral authority or about personal happiness and health benefits.
• Religious nones now comprise 28% of U.S. adults — larger than Catholics or evangelical Protestants.

“The results of the Sutherland Institute/Heart+Mind survey,” said Sutherland religious freedom scholar Bill Duncan, “suggest that telling the story of religion’s value to society, grounded in the facts, can noticeably improve opinions about religion.”

He continued, “The fact that 75% of disaster relief organizations working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency are religious, or the fact that religion contributes more than $1.2 trillion annually to the U.S. economy, are things that many Americans do not know. The more Americans learn about how religion benefits them, even if they aren’t religious, the better their view of faith is likely to be.”

The findings and recommendations are highlighted in Sutherland’s newest publication, available here: