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Which States Are Most Religious?

Uncategorized | Apr 24, 2018

map globe most religious states Gallup

By Lisa Cannon Green

The Bible Belt remains buckled firmly across the American South, even as the nation as a whole becomes less religious, a new Gallup survey shows.

For the 10th year in a row, Mississippi ranks as the nation’s most religious state in 2017, with 59 percent of residents considered “very religious.”

That label fits 45 percent of people in the Southwest and 43 percent of those in the Southeast—they say religion is important to them, and they attend services frequently, Gallup reports.

In contrast, only 26 percent of New Englanders and 29 percent of those in the Pacific region are very religious, Gallup says.

At the bottom of the list, in Vermont, 16 percent of residents are very religious.

Protestantism is a major factor in the regional differences, according to Gallup.

“In the Southeast and Southwest, large percentages of Protestants, especially black Protestants, are very religious,” Gallup says. “All of the states in these regions are more religious than any of the states in New England and the Pacific, where residents remain the least religious in the nation.”

Lifeway Research has found that 55 percent of evangelicals by belief live in the South, a region that is outpacing the rest of the nation in population growth.

Overall, 37 percent of Americans can be classified as very religious in 2017, according to Gallup. The share has declined slowly from 42 percent in 2010.

“While the percentage of all Americans who are very religious has shrunk over the past decade, the differences in religiousness between the regions have held firm, with no indication that these regional differences will change in the near future,” Gallup says.

Nine of the 11 most religious states in the nation are in the South, Gallup says. Here’s the full ranking from Gallup for 2017.

State % very religious
Mississippi 59
Alabama 54
Utah 54
Louisiana 52
Arkansas 50
South Carolina 50
Tennessee 49
Nebraska 46
North Carolina 46
Oklahoma 45
Kentucky 45
Kansas 44
Georgia 44
Texas 43
Indiana 42
North Dakota 40
Idaho 39
Missouri 39
Virginia 38
West Virginia 38
New Mexico 38
Iowa 37
South Dakota 37
Minnesota 37
Ohio 37
Michigan 36
Wyoming 36
Pennsylvania 36
Maryland 36
Wisconsin 35
Florida 35
Delaware 35
Illinois 35
Rhode Island 32
Montana 32
New Jersey 32
New York 31
Arizona 31
Colorado 30
Connecticut 29
California 29
Alaska 28
Hawaii 28
Washington 28
Oregon 28
District of Columbia 28
Nevada 26
Massachusetts 26
New Hampshire 23
Maine 22
Vermont 16

Related:

  • Which States are Most Sinful?
  • How Charitable is Your State?
  • America’s Most Stressed States in 2018

LISA CANNON GREEN (@lisacgreen) is senior editor of Facts & Trends.

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