How many atheist are there in the U.S.?

Answer 1

Nobody is really sure. Many parts of the USA are not tolerant of atheists, so it would be difficult to publicly state that one was atheist without facing discrimination.

Certainly, not many politicians state it when in public office (Abraham Lincoln famously stated that he was not a Christian in his private letters - though that doesn't mean he was an atheist necessarily).

Scientists are more forthcoming (see related link, below).

Various polls give various figures, but one must be wary of polls because they can be designed to give the answer which the questioner wants to get.

One can be sure that the USA is by far the most religious Western nation by quite a long way, especially when compared to countries such as France, where some estimates put 50% of the population as non-religious

Most sources give a figure of less than 10% of the American population.

What is undeniable, however, is that Atheism is growing very rapidly in the USA (or at least more people are stating in public that they are atheist).

See the related link for the numbers, but from only 1,000 in 1900, atheists have risen in number to 200,000 in 1970, then to 880,000 by 1996, and 1.5 million by 1998. The numbers decline sharply and suddenly after that in the linked table, but note that the number was a projection made in 1995 when the existing known numbers were much smaller.

The most likely explanation for this sudden rise is that people are more willing to state that they are atheist: not that there are suddenly that many more atheists. Atheism is growing, but I doubt it is growing at that rate.

Answer 2

Since atheists are not a centrally organized group there is no way to accurately count the number of atheists in the United States. People with religious beliefs make up the majority in this country and Christians make up the majority of the people with religious beliefs. Christians find atheists the most repugnant of all sub-groups in the population and marginalize them at every opportunity. That creates a climate that discourages honesty in polls that seek to establish a "count" of atheists living in the United States if indeed such polls actually exist.

Answer 3

54 to 60 million.