A recent study from the Pew Research Center shows that Americans without a religious affiliation have overtaken Catholics to become the second largest religious group in the country. 23% of Americans now say that they are religiously unaffiliated, up from 16% in 2007. Evangelical Christians are still the largest group, though their numbers have dropped slightly from 26% to 25% of the population. 

YouGov’s latest research shows that Americans who think that the decline in religious affiliation is a bad thing (41%) are narrowly outnumbered by the 48% of Americans who think that this is neither good nor bad (31%) or even a good thing (17%). There is a clear political divide in responses to this, however, as Republicans (68%) are three times more likely than Democrats (23%) to think that declining religious affiliation is a bad thing. Democrats (23%) are also three times more likely than Republicans (7%) to view the trend positively.