http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/poll-shows-atheism-on-the-rise-in-the-us/2012/08/13/90020fd6-e57d-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html

The poll, called ³The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism,² found that the number of Americans who say they are ³religious² dropped from 73 percent in 2005 (the last time the poll was conducted) to 60 percent.

At the same time, the number of Americans who say they are atheists rose, from 1 percent to 5 percent.

³The obvious implication is that this is a manifestation of the New Atheism movement,² said Ryan Cragun, a University of Tampa sociologist of religion who studies American and global atheism.

³For a very long time, religiosity has been a central characteristic of the American identity,² he said. ³But what this suggests is that is changing and people are feeling less inclined to identify as religious to comply with what it means to be a good person in the U.S.²

The current poll confirms a declining religiosity ‹ both at home and abroad ‹ that¹s been detected in other polls. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that 15 percent of Americans said they have no religion ‹ different from being a ³confirmed atheist,² but nonetheless up from 8 percent in 1990.