Gallup has ranked the states from most to least religious, and I live in the 4th most religious of the states. This is how they judged:
For the current ranking, Gallup uses the responses to a straightforward question that asks: "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" The rankings are based on the percentage of each state's adult (18 and older) population that answers in the affirmative.
The picture above came from the Gallup site and clearly shows that solid Southern Bible belt.
I saw it somewhere else first but can't find that now so I'm giving my hat tip to John Meunier.
2/3/2009:
Dispatches from the Culture Wars digs deeper and finds that Tennessee may be the 4th most religious state but it's 3rd in out-of-wedlock births and 4th highest in teen pregnancies. Way to go, Tennessee. Show'em how to walk that walk! Here's proof that feeling "religious" doesn't lead to living "religious".
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Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteGenerally one thinks of the Pacific Northwest (Joel Garreau's “Ecotopia”) as the least religious part of the US. In fact, I often think the Pacific Northwest has never really had much to do with the American Dream, and that its timber-based economy and scarcity of land have given it a culture more akin say to Sweden or Denmark than most of the US.
That the northeastern states of America are even less religious than the Pacific Northwest (but are they less religious than western Oregon, western Washington state or California north of San Luis Obispo?) surprises me a little, especially with Maine. I had often assumed the devoutly Catholic culture of pre-Quiet Revolution Quebéc had survived rather better in Arostook County (far north of Maine) than in French Canada. If the low religiosity of Maine is accurate, then this cannot be the case at all.