Mississippi the Worst State for Stigma and Discrimination Against Nonreligious People, Survey Finds
Jackson, MS—May 5, 2020—Today, the civil rights organization American Atheists released Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, a comprehensive report drawn from the groundbreaking U.S. Secular Survey. Organized by a team of researchers and counting nearly 34,000 nonreligious participants, the U.S. Secular Survey is the largest ever data collection project on secular Americans and their experiences.
“At 75 million people, religiously unaffiliated Americans are as large a demographic as either Evangelical Christians or Catholics, and explicitly nonreligious people comprise a growing share of the population, yet before the U.S. Secular Survey there had been a lack of focused research on our community,” said Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, who helped lead the project.
“What we found shocked us. Discrimination and stigma against nonreligious Americans is widespread and extremely harmful, and it was most intense in very religious communities, and specifically in Mississippi,” she added. “This report shows that the more religious the community, the more likely nonreligious people are to face discrimination and stigma.”
With nearly 8 in 10 Mississippian participants (78.7%) calling their community “very religious,” Mississippi ranks as the most religious state in the country after Utah. Similarly, Mississippi ranks as the worst state for stigma against nonreligious people and as the state where nonreligious people are most often forced to conceal their beliefs.
“Living in Mississippi, you’re constantly surrounded by religion. Nobody asks if you have a faith, only which church you go to. I don’t wear my atheism on my sleeve so I’ve avoided direct discrimination but I’ve seen it happen to others,” said Sarah Worrel, American Atheists’ Assistant State Director for Gulfport.
The Reality Check report found that involvement with organized secular community groups is an important protective factor that correlated with reduced likelihood of loneliness and depression. Members of national secular organizations, like American Atheists, were 34.8% less likely than non-members to experience depression, while members of local secular groups were 29.3% less likely.
“Since many here are not open about their lack of religion, it can feel very isolating. Through our local humanist group, I’ve found more nonreligious members of our community than most would imagine exist in one of the most religious states in the union,” added Worrel, leader of the MS Gulf Coast Humanists and co-organizer for the MS Gulf Coast Atheist and Freethinker Association. “It’s refreshing to speak with people that don’t assume you’re conservative Christian. If you’re an atheist in MS, you are not alone.”
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If you have questions about Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America or the U.S. Secular Survey, our team is happy to connect you to our experts, researchers, and nonreligious people across the country who have compelling, unique stories to tell.
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About Us
The U.S. Secular Survey and Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America are projects of American Atheists, a national civil rights group that represents the interests of atheists and nonreligious people in the United States. The survey and report were produced in collaboration with Strength in Numbers Consulting Group, a progressive research, evaluation, and strategy firm.