Gallup has just released its list of the most religious states and the least religious states in the country — all based on how people categorized themselves between the options of “Very religious,” “Moderately religious,” and “Nonreligious.”

In 2009, the last time they released a survey like this, the question was “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” and the options were “Yes” and “No.” (In other words, don’t bother comparing the percentages between then and now — we’re talking about very different questions in the two scenarios.)

Here’s what they found (based on 2011 polling) regarding the states with the highest percentages of “very religious” Americans:

Some things to note:

Mississippi, once again, is at the top of the list.

In 2009, Utah didn’t crack the top ten. Now, it’s #2. The difference in question obviously had an impact here.

Of all the states in the top ten here, Utah also has the highest proportion of nonreligious Americans (28%, compared to Mississippi’s 11%)

There’s very little change in the past few years.

What about the states with the lowest percentages of “very religious” Americans?

Some things to note:

Vermont, once again, is at the bottom of the list. Go Vermont!

Yep, Alaska is on that list. I’m still surprised by that.

There’s very little change in the past few years.

If you wanted to group the states based on the highest percentage of nonreligious Americans, the chart would look like this:

1) Vermont (58%)

2) New Hampshire (52%)

3) Maine (49%)

4) Massachusetts (47%)

5) Oregon (45%)

6) Alaska (44%)

6) Washington (44%)

8] Connecticut (42%)

9) Nevada (40%)

9) New York (40%)

9) Colorado (40%)

9) Montana (40%)

Gallup summarizes the findings this way — and what a huge understatement they make:

Gallup classifies 40% 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% 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% 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.

I want to point that out again because it’s a huge freaking deal.

Nearly a third of our country can be categorized as nonreligious. A THIRD! That is the highest number I’ve ever seen describing the “nones.” Just to be clear, they’re not all atheists — I’m sure some would call themselves “spiritual but not religious” and many of them still wrongly believe in some higher power — but organized religion doesn’t have a stranglehold on their lives. That’s an incredible number.

Here’s the full 2012 list, broken down by categories:

31.50% Nonreligious. Wow.

It makes you wonder how 40% of Americans can still believe in Creationism… because not all those people who are “very religious” go to churches preaching Young Earth Creationism.



