NEW: Gallup Poll: Massachusetts Ranks #4 In Least Religious States

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Massachusetts isn’t quite at the bottom, but it’s not far from it, when it comes to the least religious states in the country.

Just 28 percent of Massachusetts residents claimed to be “very religious” in a recent Gallup Poll, putting it just ahead of Vermont and New Hampshire, where 23 percent made the claim.

Mississippi, with 59 percent of poll takers identifying themselves as very religious, is the most religious state in the country – one of eight where Gallup classified at least half the residents as very religious.

Gallup classified 40 percent of Americans nationwide as very religious – based on their statement that religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week.

Another 32 percent of Americans are nonreligious, based on their statement that religion is not an important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend religious services. The remaining 28 percent of Americans are moderately religious, because they say religion is important but that they do not attend services regularly or because they say religion is not important but still attend services.

Not surprisingly, the biggest example of religious disparity was between the deep South and Vermont, where this is a gap between very religious residents of 36 percent. Contrarily, 58 percent of Vermont residents identified themselves as very religious, a much higher number than the 11 percent of nonreligious Mississippi residents.

The bottom line, according to Gallup: America remains a generally religious nation, with more than two-thirds of the nation's residents classified as very or moderately religious. These overall national averages, however, conceal dramatic regional differences in religiosity across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Residents of Southern states are generally the most religious, underscoring the validity of the "Bible Belt" sobriquet often used to describe this region. Coupled with the Southern states in the high-religiosity category is Utah, the majority of whose residents are Mormon - the most religious group in America today.

On the other hand, residents of New England and a number of far Western states tend to be the least religious.