People claiming to have no religion grows to 15% of American population

Don't blame secularism for driving up the percentage of Americans who say they have no religion, says Barry Kosmin, co-researcher for the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS).

"These people aren't secularized. They're not thinking about religion and rejecting it; they're not thinking about it at all," Kosmin says.

A closer look at the "Nones" — people who said None" when asked their religious identity — shows that this group (now 15% of Americans, up from 8% in 1990) opts out of traditional religious rites of passage...

When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC, VIDEOS: Compare states, dates, religious groups and non-religious numbers

FAITH & REASON: What's your religious 'path'?

THE 'NONES': Now 15% of the population

Read more on this here: 'Nones" now 15% of population

TAKE A LOOK AT THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE