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A new survey shows more than 20 percent of Arizonans don't claim any religion — a higher percentage of religiously unaffiliated than in the nation as a whole.

Sixteen percent of American adults say they are atheist, agnostic or not part of any particular faith. The study says that figure is 22 percent in Arizona.

Yet many of the people who claim no affiliation still believe in God, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Just 4 percent are atheist or agnostic, suggesting the rest could be categorized as "believers who don't belong," an area of faith that's growing in Europe.

The country's largest faith group is evangelical Christian, claiming 26 percent of the American adult population, the study says. In Arizona, that percentage was slightly lower — 23 percent. One quarter of Arizona's adults are Roman Catholic — the largest faith group in the state, the Pew Study says. The national percentage is 24 percent.

The survey relied on interviews with 35,000 American adults, and researchers say the data have a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point. The study did not provide county breakdowns.

The third-largest faith group in Arizona is the "unaffiliated," the study says.

"Arizona has a spirit of independence, and there are a lot of movements that are converging in the West," said Victor Shamas, a self-proclaimed "spiritual omnivore" who has led a local sacred chanting circle called Global Chant since 1996.

"I think that the exclusivity of religions isn't working for a lot of people. When someone says to you that this prophecy or teaching is the only one, you are ready to walk out the door," said Shamas, an author and lecturer for the University of Arizona's psychology department.

Shamas grew up in a Jewish family but no longer affiliates himself with one group. He embraces values and traditions of many faiths, including Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Sufi and pagan.

"I think people are moving to interconnectedness in their belief system," Shamas said. "I'm inclusive, and so is my group. We embrace wisdom from every tradition, but we don't follow any one specific teacher or teaching. More specifically, wisdom is wisdom. I don't care where it comes from," Shamas said.

Shamas is among the 28 percent of American adults who the study found had left the faith of their childhood in favor of another religion or no religion at all.

If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, roughly 44 percent of American adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey data show the western United States has the largest proportion of unaffiliated people, including the largest proportion of atheists and agnostics.

"Being a native of the South, I can tell you tradition holds a high value for those in the Midwest and those in the South. Here, tradition — specifically religious tradition — doesn't hold as much weight," said the Rev. Keith Powell, an ordained Baptist pastor who has been ministering in Tucson since 2001.

But Powell isn't concerned about the statistics on unaffiliated Arizonans.

"Nearly 80 percent are affiliated with a religion and have a value system they are at least willing to express," Powell said. "I feel Christianity and specifically evangelical Christianity is in a position to grow as long as we understand that we have to maintain the viability of our witness in our life, and maintain our integrity."

The term evangelical Christianity generally means Protestants who emphasize personal conversion, evangelism and the authority, primacy and, typically, inerrancy of the Bible.

As for mainline Protestant churches, the survey says their members are on average older than members of other faith groups.

Roughly half of mainline Protestant churchgoers are age 50 and older, compared with about four in 10 American adults overall.

Other studies have shown declining membership among the mainline Protestant churches.

Mainlines are moderate-to-liberal Protestant churches. Among their more prominent denominations are the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Episcopal Church.

About 15 percent of Arizonans identified as mainline Protestant, compared with 18 percent of Americans. Researchers said the label "mainline" may need to be re-examined.

"The image of the United States as a mainline Protestant nation is an old one," concurred Dave Wasserman, co-pastor of the university-area Trinity Presbyterian Church, which is part of the mainline Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

"The mainline has moved to the sideline. Some of us bemoan that shift. Others of us see it as an opportunity to share the Gospel from a new perspective, closer to Jesus' viewing the world through the eyes of the poor and marginalized."

Wasserman said the mainlines, nonetheless, have a special gift to offer the religious landscape in the U.S. — a faith that is humble and therefore respectful of God's gift of diversity.

Indeed, diversity was a big part of the results in the Pew study, which showed an increased influence of immigration on faith in the U.S. For example, nearly half of all Catholics under the age of 40 are Latino.

About one-third of the survey respondents who were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic, meaning roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.

The survey suggests those losses have been offset by the disproportionately high number of Catholics among immigrants. The result is that the total percentage of the population that identifies as Catholic has remained fairly stable.