AJGita

How Religious Is Your State?

Posted on 31 December 2009

There’s a cool new study/infographic on U.S. religiosity–always one of my favorite subjects!

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life just released their “state by state religious commitment analysis” on all 50 states, and, not surprisingly, a state in the “Bible Belt” came up on top: Mississippi. Eighty-two percent of Mississippi residents said “religion is very important in their lives.”

In comparison, the least religious state(s), Vermont and New Hampshire (their results were combined due to small sample sizes) have only 36 percent of residents concluding religion is “very important” to them.

Surprisingly, Alaska is near the very bottom of that list, dispelling the stereotype that conservative states tend to be more religious and liberal states tend to be more a- or even anti-religious. It racked a measly total of 37 percent who consider religion something very important in their lives.

The Pew Forum also measured the national average of religious commitment, where a majority of Americans hold this belief at 56 percent.

Despite this, the study implies that fewer Americans consider a place of worship a necessity for religiosity. Only 39 percent of Americans regularly attend worship services at least once a week, on average. And, even though Vermont and New Hampshire came in at the bottom of the religious commitment measure, over half (54 percent) of residents “believe in God with absolute certainty.” (They’re still on the bottom of that list, though.)

Regardless, America remains an anomaly among “developed” countries as a fervently religious country compared to other European and American countries in the North, Central, and South.