What is the most religious state in the U.S.? Check out where yours is on the list

Mississippi has long been seen as part of the Bible Belt, and new research confirms just how deeply faith runs there. According to Pew Research Center’s latest Religious Landscape Study, it ranks as the most religious state in the country.

Which state is most and least religious in the USA?

Half of Mississippi adults qualify as ‘highly religious’ under Pew’s index, which weighs daily prayer, service attendance, belief in God and how important religion is in people’s lives. On all four measures, Mississippi is No 1: 61% say religion is very important to them, 54% attend services at least monthly, 62% pray daily, and 74% say they believe in God with absolute certainty. That’s a lot of faith.

Among White Americans, the most religious are nearly three times as likely to lean Republican as the least religious

Pew study

At the other end of the scale, Vermont ranks last. Just 21% of its adults meet Pew’s ‘highly religious’ threshold, reflecting a broader trend in New England where states such as New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts also sit near the bottom.

Regional trends in religiousness

Regional differences stand out in the rankings. Southern states dominate the top tier – South Carolina, South Dakota, Louisiana, Tennessee and Utah round out the top six – while much of the northeast and the west coast are among the least religious.

Only 28% of young adults raised in highly religious homes remain highly religious themselves

Pew study

Pew’s survey, conducted in 2023 and 2024 with nearly 37,000 U.S. adults, is one of the most detailed snapshots of faith in America. It comes against a backdrop of long-term decline in Christianity nationwide. While 78% of Americans identified as Christian in 2007, that share has dropped to 62%. The growth of religiously unaffiliated adults – the so-called “nones” – has driven much of the shift.

Even so, the new data suggests the pace of change has slowed. Since 2020, levels of prayer and churchgoing have held relatively steady, with about a third of Americans attending services monthly and 44% praying daily. Large majorities still say they believe in God or some form of spiritual presence.

One in four U.S. marriages cross religious lines, and those couples tend to practice less

Pew study

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