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Tuesday, May 7

Are people giving least importance to religion ? may be yes



Since 1986, the New York Times, CBS, Gallup, and several other groups have surveyed Americans about the importance of religion. In particular, they have asked Americans the following question: “How important is religion in your daily life? Is it extremely important, very important, somewhat important, or not at all important?”
This question has been asked more than 50 times over a 25-year period, which gives a sense of how Americans have changed on this issue.
In the latest survey, collected in February 2013, 26% of respondents reported that religion is “extremely important to them,” 25% said “very important,” 33% said “somewhat important,” and 14% said “not at all important.” As such, about of Americans experience religion as highly important in their lives (i.e, “extremely” or “very”). About one-third hold it as marginally important (i.e., “somewhat”), and the rest not important.
To understand how this has changed over time, we have plotted answers to this survey question over the past years. (we averaged across surveys when multiple surveys asked this question in a given year. Also, this question was not asked in every year). and hence the results are below....
As shown in this figure, the number of Americans who view religion as not at all important in their daily life held steady from 1985 to about 2003 at around 8-9%. Since then, however, it has risen steadily to 14% in 2011.
At the other end of the spectrum, the percentage of Americans who view religion as extremely important in their daily lives has also increased. In the 1980s, only 21%-22% of Americans viewed religion as extremely important. This percentage increased steadily over the next to decades, to where it’s now at 26%–a change almost as large as the increase in Americans who view religion as not at all important.
Religion as moderately to strongly important. Through 2007, at least, the percentage of Americans who viewed religion as “very” important said steady at about 33%. However, the percentage who viewed it as “somewhat” important dropped, from the most frequently-given answer, 36% in 1986, to only 22% in 2007. In 2010 and 2011, however, the percentage of “very” dropped considerably and the percentage of “somewhat” has risen. It’s too early to tell if this is a robust trend.
A more simple examination compares 1986 to 2013.
Extremely important  21% 25%
Very important           33% 24%
Somewhat important  35% 33%
Not important at all     11% 17%
after reading all this ask yourself Do you give importance to religion?
answer your choice as yes and no below