Catholicism Less Popular than Beer Pong

Whether as a result of Catholicism's opposition to condoms and beer pong or for another reason, the Catholic population in New England is decreasing, particularly in Massachusetts, as Catholics increase in the southwest. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, 54 percent of Bay Staters self-identified as Catholic in 1990; in 2008, the amount went down to 39 percent. Rather than adopting new religions, these folks seem to now identify as secular, following a larger trend: just 8.2 percent of Americans claimed "no religion" in 1990; 15 percent of the country is non-religious today. Vermont is 34% religionless, the highest in the nation.