Largest Survey on Nonreligious Americans Reveals Widespread Discrimination and Stigma, Including in Arizona

Phoenix, AZMay 5, 2020—Today, the civil rights organization American Atheists released Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, a comprehensive report drawn from the groundbreaking U.S. Secular Survey. Organized by a team of researchers and counting nearly 34,000 nonreligious participants, including 1,016 Arizonans, the U.S. Secular Survey is the largest ever data collection project on secular Americans and their experiences.

“At 75 million people, religiously unaffiliated Americans are as large a demographic as either Evangelical Christians or Catholics, and explicitly nonreligious people comprise a growing share of the population, yet before the U.S. Secular Survey there had been a lack of focused research on our community,” said Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, who helped lead the project. “What we found shocked us. Discrimination and stigma against nonreligious Americans is widespread and extremely harmful.”

Due to their nonreligious identity, more than half of participants nationwide (54.5%) had negative experiences with family members, nearly one third (29.4%) faced discrimination in education, and more than one in five (21.7%) in the workplace.

In 2017, Arizona representatives, including then-House Majority Leader John Allen, attacked Arizona Representative Athena Salman’s religious freedom when they denounced her humanist invocation and had another representative give a Christian “substitute prayer.” And last year, Arizona Representative John Kavanagh discriminated against Representative Salman at her place of work, mocking her for giving a second secular invocation.

“The culture of intolerance towards underrepresented religious belief systems—specifically atheists, agnostics, and humanists—is manifested not only in a non-inclusive environment in the conduction of the day’s business, but disturbingly through the passage of public policy that favors one religious belief over all others,” said Representative Salman. “It’s time for lawmakers to wake up and understand that nonreligious people are a growing constituency that votes, and these actions matter.”

Participants who had negative experiences with family members for being nonreligious had a 73.3% higher rate of likely depression, while discrimination in education and the workplace saw an increase of respectively 21.5% and 37.2% in depression.

“The Reality Check report shows just how harmful discrimination and stigma against nonreligious people is for mental health. By attacking Representative Salman’s nonreligious beliefs, John Allen and the rest assaulted not only her religious freedom, but also who she is as a person, and the religious freedom of all nonreligious people,” said Seráh Blain, former Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for Arizona and the current Communications Director for Foundation Beyond Belief, a secular organization that engages in international humanitarian work. “Our belief that there is no afterlife compels us to help people in the here and now. That makes our philosophy of life just as moral as any religion—if not more so.”

The Reality Check report found that involvement with organized secular community groups is an important protective factor that correlated with reduced likelihood of loneliness and depression. Members of national secular organizations, including American Atheists, were 34.8% less likely than non-members to be at risk for depression, while members of local secular groups were 29.3% less likely.

"I grew up fundamentalist Christian and struggled to find a community of support after leaving religion," said Luke Douglas, Executive Director of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, an American Atheists affiliate. “But then I settled into atheist and humanist communities. I've seen our movement grow, diversify, and organize into a social and political force to be reckoned with.”

Contact Us

If you have questions about Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America or the U.S. Secular Survey, our team is happy to connect you to our experts, researchers, and nonreligious people across the country who have compelling, unique stories to tell.

If you’re a member of the media and would like to get in touch with us, please reach out to Tom Van Denburgh, American Atheists’ Communications Director, by emailing tvandenburgh@atheists.org or by calling (862) 221-6547.

About Us

The U.S. Secular Survey and Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America are projects of American Atheists, a national civil rights group that represents the interests of atheists and nonreligious people in the United States. The survey and report were produced in collaboration with Strength in Numbers Consulting Group, a progressive research, evaluation, and strategy firm.