THE TREND IN "NO RELIGION" RESPONDENTS TO U.S. NATIONAL SURVEYS, LATE 1950s TO EARLY 1980s

Data from 110 U.S. national surveys are used to study the trendin "no religion" responses from the late 1950s to the early1980s. The trend was monotonically upward, at least until the1980s, when there were signs of leveling off or an incipientreversal of the trend. The trend came about through both changeswithin birth cohorts and cohort succession, and it involvedpersons of all major religious backgrounds and both men andwomen. Whether or not the change indicates an important degreeof secularization is considered at length. Problems involvedin using a dichotomous indicator to gauge change in a quantitativevariable are discussed.