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Americans were asked "What percentage of American adults _____" compared with the true proportion.
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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Wait, atheism is that low in the US?? 38.9% of Australians indicated no religion at the last census, I knew we had more but never expected a whole order of magnitude difference!
That number is wrong.
28% of people in the US don't have a religion. People here just don't like the word atheist.
"Don't have a religion" includes
Saying "don't have a religion" equals atheist is like claiming that everyone who didn't vote for Trump or Harris is an anarchist.
That 3% atheist figure is drastically lower than the global 10-15% and probably misleadingly low because identifying as an atheist on a survey and functionally being an atheist aren't the same thing.
I understand that no religion =/= atheist, but when you look at these other 'atheist adjacent' stats like "no religion", they don't reflect a population that's as religious as "3% atheist" would suggest.
We're probably just seeing problems with the word atheist in the US, not a true accounting of how religious people are here.