7. is the least religious state

Every year since 2009 a Gallup Poll has examined just how religious Americans are. In 2016 they interviewed nearly 200,000 people and found that found that Vermont is the least religious state in the nation. The poll found that only 21 percent of Vermonters judged themselves to be “very religious.” Maine was second with 23 percent while Massachusetts came in third with 25 percent.

What state was the most religious? You guessed it—Mississippi with a whopping 59 percent describing themselves as “very religious,” followed by Alabama (at 56 percent) and Utah (54 percent).

Looking at the findings over time the data show two interesting trends—1) Americans are becoming less religious as a nation and 2) the ranking have not changed much over the years the survey has been conducted. Northern New England almost always ranks as the least religious. The Deep South ranks as the most religious.

Vermont was unique in one other way as well—while southerners are more likely to define themselves as Evangelicals or Southern Baptists, Vermonters were more like to describe their affiliations as “nothing in particular.” The same findings are consistently reported in other studies.

Source: Carol Kuruvilla, “Here are the Most and Least Religious States in America, results of a Gallup Poll reported in the Huffington Post, February 10, 2017.

Source: Gallup Poll, reported in AARP Bulletin, October 2015, page 36. (shown below)