Belief Without Religion: Study Finds Spirituality Among The Religiously Unaffiliated
WASHINGTON — A growing number of people around the world are walking away from organized religion — but that doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned spiritual beliefs altogether.
A new study by the Pew Research Center released Thursday reveals that many religiously unaffiliated adults — often referred to as “nones” — still hold beliefs commonly associated with religion, such as belief in life after death, a spiritual realm or even God.
The study surveyed adults in 22 countries with large populations of religiously unaffiliated individuals. These “nones” typically identify as atheist, agnostic or say they have “nothing in particular” when it comes to religion. While they are generally less likely than religious people to engage in worship, prayer or other practices, the research found that belief in some form of spirituality remains surprisingly common among them.
READ: What Do America's Nonreligious Really Believe?
As religious affiliation declines in many parts of the world, especially in the West, researchers and policymakers may need to rethink how they define and understand faith, spirituality and belief in the modern era.
Ryan Burge, a political scientist and Baptist pastor, has been studying the “nones” and their rise in recent years.
“We have come to believe that lots of people are engaging in what we would describe as ‘aspirational spirituality.’ Put simply, folks want to be perceived as having a deep well of spirituality inside them,” he wrote in a recent Substack post. “They do not want to be perceived as vapid and superficial. So they will say that they are deeply spiritual, but then do nothing to express that feeling. In our minds, it’s a similar phenomenon to the significant number of people who say that they are evangelical but don’t go to church.”
While “nones” may be the fastest-growing religious demographic in many countries, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of belief. It may, Pew reveals, simply signal the transformation of how belief is expressed.
Contrary to the assumption that religiously unaffiliated people are all nonbelievers or skeptics, the study found that sizable numbers hold beliefs often associated with religious traditions.
For example, in every one of the 22 countries surveyed, at least 19% of unaffiliated adults said they believe in an afterlife. That number rises significantly in some regions: 65% of “nones” in Peru, 53% in Brazil and 50% in the U.S. said they believe there is life after death. Even in more secular countries — such as Hungary and Sweden — about one in five unaffiliated adults shared that belief.
In addition, many “nones” said they believe in a spiritual dimension beyond the physical world. A majority of the unaffiliated in countries like Mexico (61%) and Brazil (65%) agreed with the statement that “there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.”
Differences based on geography
One of the most striking findings from this latest Pew study is the variation in belief in God among religiously unaffiliated people, depending on where they live.
In South American nations such as Brazil (92%), Colombia (86%) and Chile (69%), large majorities of unaffiliated adults still say they believe in God. South Africa shows similarly high numbers, with 77% of “nones” reporting belief in a higher power.
However, in more secular societies, such as those in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, belief in God is far less common among unaffiliated populations. Only 18% of “nones” in Australia said they believe in God, while the numbers drop to just 10% in Sweden and 9% in Hungary.
In the United States, belief in God among religiously unaffiliated adults is somewhere in the middle, with 45% saying they believe in a higher power, according to Pew’s 2023 survey.
Beyond traditional religious beliefs, many unaffiliated adults also hold views that reflect broader spiritual perspectives. In countries such as Greece and several South American nations, large majorities of “nones” said they believe that animals have spirits or possess some form of spiritual energy. In some of these places, three-quarters or more of the unaffiliated population express such beliefs.
These findings complicate the popular notion that religion and spirituality are one and the same — or that stepping away from formal religious affiliation equates to atheism or agnosticism.
Why people become religiously unaffiliated
The report challenges black-and-white definitions of religious affiliation, suggesting that spirituality can thrive outside the bounds of traditional religious identity. Many people who reject religious institutions or labels continue to find meaning in beliefs that transcend the material world.
Pew’s data shed light on the reasons why people become religiously unaffiliated. In a 2023 U.S. survey, only about a third of “nones” cited a lack of belief in God or a higher power as a very important reason for their disaffiliation. Nearly the same proportion (30%) pointed to negative experiences with religious people. Even more (47%) said they are nonreligious because they don’t like religious organizations.
This suggests that disaffiliation is often driven as much by institutional distrust or disillusionment as it is by disbelief. However, a notable share of “nones” do reject spiritual and religious beliefs entirely. These individuals say they do not believe in God, an afterlife or in anything spiritual beyond the physical world.
In Sweden, for example, where more than half the adult population is religiously unaffiliated, about half of “nones” — representing 28% of the total adult population — fit this description of consistent secularism.
Similarly, high levels of secular belief were reported, according to Pew, in countries like Australia (24%), the Netherlands (24%) and South Korea (23%).
By contrast, in countries like Mexico, a far smaller share of the population fits the fully secular profile. While 20% of Mexican adults are religiously unaffiliated, just 2% can be described as consistently secular across all three of Pew’s measures: Belief in God, belief in an afterlife and belief in a spiritual realm.
Clemente Lisi serves as executive editor at Religion Unplugged.