Belief In God Has Dropped Significantly In The Last 15 Years

The chart above was made from information in a recent Gallup Poll -- done between June 14th and 23rd of a random national sample of 1,025 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

It shows the belief in a god by Americans has dropped from 90% in May of 2001 to 79% in May of 2016. That's an 11 point drop in just the last 15 years. In that same 15 years, the belief in angels has dropped by 7 points, belief in Heaven has dropped by 12 points, belief in Hell has dropped by 7 points, and belief in the devil has dropped by 7 points.

This trend toward disbelief is going to keep growing. Each generation has less belief in religion than the one before it, and the latest generation has the biggest percentage of unbelievers ever.

It has been generally accepted that about 6% of the U.S. population are admitted atheists. This poll puts the number of those who don't believe there is a god (i.e., atheists) at 11%. That tells me that about half of atheists are still in the closet -- unwilling to admit their belief publicly because of a fear of retaliation from their employer or their community.

And that 11% is not an insignificant number. The U.S. population is over 322 million people. That means there are currently more than 35 million atheists in this country.