The “spiritual but not religious” market segment now makes up 27 percent of the U.S. population. That’s up 8 percentage points in the last five years, according to Pew Research. If this is your market, or the place where your peeps hang out, it just got easier to find them.

The spiritual but not religious are also called “nones” by sociologists—yes, really!—because they check the “none” box on all the applications of life. And they share some common characteristics, according to Pew.

The spiritual but not religious: 

• Are more highly educated than the general public

• Have attended some college (a third of them have college degrees)

• Identify as Democratic (52%) vs. Republican (39%).

Do the Spiritual But Not Religious Really Turn Away From Religion? 

Yes and no. 

What could be happening, according to Linda A. Mercadente, author of Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious, is the “…conceptual amputation of spirituality from religion.” The result is a freedom from religious traditions, authorities and constraints. 

In other words, the spiritual but not religious retained the same core beliefs. They just repackaged them. 

What’s Inside the Spiritual But Not Religious Packaging

Both religion and spirituality share four basic components, according to Mercadente:

• Belief in a larger and more transcendent reality 

• A desire to connect with that larger reality

• Rituals and practices to aid that connection

• Behaviors that show that connection, e.g., yoga, meditation, etc. 

What all of this information provides is a clearer way to identify the spiritual but not religious demographic—to find your peeps, to market to them, to create a groundswell of social change. And story may be a large part of that.

Are the Spiritual But Not Religious Merely Mythologists-in-Waiting?

The spiritual but not religious have been with us for a long time, suggests Karen Armstrong, a leading world thinker on human belief systems. In her excellent little book, A Short History of Myth, Armstrong succinctly traces the core beliefs of the spiritual but not religious (although she doesn’t name this group specifically).

This need to connect with something greater, notes Armstrong, has been with us since our first ancestors walked the earth. They are our spiritual but not religious forefathers, you might say. In pre-modern cultures, mythology was not just the stories you told yourself to get through a hard day and a hard life. Mythology was also a form of psychology; it helped people find their way and place in the world. 

So perhaps the growth in the spiritual but not religious demographic speaks to a deeper and more ancient yearning the world has always been hungry to satiate. 

M. Carolyn Miller, MA, designs narrative- and game-based learning. She also writes and speaks about the power of story in our lives and world. www.cultureshape.com