A little more than half of Utah residents say they attend religious services every week, more than any other state in the union, according to Gallup.
Residents in Southern states Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas are the next most likely to be frequent church goers, with 45% to 47% reporting weekly attendance.
Vermont comes in on the other end of the spectrum, with only 17% of residents saying they attend religious services every week.
Top 10 States for church attendance:
- Utah (51%);
- Mississippi (47%);
- Alabama (46%);
- Louisiana (46%);
- Arkansas (45%);
- South Carolina (42%);
- Tennessee (42%);
- Kentucky (41%);
- North Carolina (40%);
- Georgia (39%)
Bottom 10 States for church attendance:
- Vermont (17%);
- New Hampshire (20%);
- Maine (20%);
- Massachusetts (22%);
- Washington (24%);
- Oregon (24%);
- Hawaii (25%);
- Colorado (25%);
- Connecticut (25%);
- Alaska (26%)
Ten of the 12 states with the highest self-reported religious service attendance are in the South, along with Utah and Oklahoma (39%).
The South’s strong religious culture reflects a variety of factors, including history, cultural norms and the fact that these states have high Protestant and black populations — both of which are above average in their self-reported religious service attendance.
Utah’s No. 1 position on the list is a direct result of that state’s 59% Mormon population, as Mormons have the highest religious service attendance of any major religious group in the U.S.
Five of New England’s six states rank among the bottom 10 states for church attendance.
Of these, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts have the lowest average attendance rates in the nations, with Connecticut not far behind.
The remaining states in the bottom 10 are all in the West, including the three states that are as far as one can go in the northwest corner of the country — Alaska, Washington and Oregon. States with average religious service attendance end to cluster in the middle of the country.
In some states — Utah and the South — nearly half of residents report attending religious services weekly, while in others — mostly in the Northeast and the West — a fourth or less of residents attend weekly.
The state-by-state variations in church attendance are significant because attendance is a powerful indicator of underlying religiosity, which in turn is related to Americans’ views on life, culture, society in general and politics.
For most segments of U.S. society — blacks being the exception — those who are the most religious are also most likely to be Republican, which helps explain the significant relationship between states with the highest church attendance and those that are traditionally red states.