AP Photo Gallup: New Hampshire the least-religious state

New Hampshire is now the least-religious state in the country, according to Gallup's 2015 state-by-state-analysis released Thursday, five days before voters in both parties make their pick in the presidential primary.

Based on the percentage of those describing themselves as very religious, 20 percent in New Hampshire said they were, slightly lower than the 22 percent who described themselves as such in Vermont, the home state of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.


Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton addressed religion and faith during Wednesday night's town hall event in Derry, New Hampshire.

Sanders, who is Jewish, called religion "a guiding principle" in his life, remarking that "everybody practices religion in a different way."

"To me, I would not be here tonight, I would not be running for president of the United States if I did not have very strong religious and spiritual feelings," he explained.

In response to a similar question in her segment — asked by a rabbi — Clinton called herself "very fortunate that I am a person of faith" who in her decades of public life has had to deal with the human issues of "ambition and humility, about service and self-gratification."

In most polling, voters in New Hampshire and elsewhere have been more apt to cite Sanders as someone who is more likely to care about them or share their values.

Other states with the lowest percentage of individuals describing themselves as least religious include Maine (26 percent), Massachusetts (27 percent), Oregon and Washington (29 percent), Hawaii (30 percent), and Rhode Island, New York, Alaska, and Wyoming (32 percent).

The most religious state, meanwhile, is Mississippi, at 63 percent. Alabama comes in second with 57 percent, followed by Utah at 55 percent and a host of southern states in the mid-to-low 50-percent range.

Gallup collected results for its analysis throughout 2015, surveying 174,745 adults nationwide. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point.