The Most & Least Religious US States

Updated Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 9:20 a.m. ET.

States across the South and Utah once again keep their high ranking on an annual list of the most religious U.S. states. Vermont leads the pack of least religious states.

The polling organization Gallup surveyed 174,699 adults across the nation between Jan. 2 and Dec. 29, 2013, asking whether religion is an important part of their daily lives and whether they regularly attend religious services. The results were largely unchanged from years past: Mississippi was the most religious state with 61 percent of its residents labeled as "very religious," while in Vermont, the least religious state, just 22 percent of people were classified as "very religious." 

The full list of U.S. states and the District of Columbia, ranked by the most religious to least, is below. Read the full story here

  • Mississippi: 61 percent
  • Utah: 60 percent
  • Alabama: 57 percent
  • Louisiana: 56 percent
  • South Carolina: 54 percent
  • Tennessee: 54 percent
  • Georgia: 52 percent
  • Arkansas: 51 percent
  • North Carolina: 50 percent
  • Oklahoma: 49 percent
  • Kentucky: 49 percent
  • Texas: 48 percent
  • Idaho: 47 percent
  • Nebraska: 47 percent
  • Kansas: 47 percent
  • South Dakota: 46 percent
  • North Dakota: 46 percent
  • Indiana: 46 percent
  • Missouri: 44 percent
  • Virginia: 44 percent
  • Iowa: 43 percent
  • West Virginia: 42 percent
  • Florida: 42 percent
  • Minnesota: 42 percent
  • Ohio: 41 percent
  • New Mexico: 41 percent
  • Pennsylvania: 41 percent
  • Michigan: 41 percent
  • Illinois: 39 percent
  • Maryland: 39 percent
  • Wisconsin: 38 percent
  • Montana: 38 percent
  • Alaska: 38 percent
  • Wyoming: 36 percent
  • New Jersey: 36 percent
  • Delaware: 36 percent
  • Arizona: 36 percent
  • Colorado: 35 percent
  • Rhode Island: 34 percent
  • California: 34 percent
  • New York: 34 percent
  • District of Columbia: 32 percent
  • Hawaii: 32 percent
  • Connecticut: 32 percent
  • Washington: 32 percent
  • Nevada: 32 percent
  • Oregon: 31 percent
  • Massachusetts: 28 percent
  • Maine: 24 percent
  • New Hampshire: 24 percent
  • Vermont: 22 percent

Editor's Note: This article was updated to include the fact that Washington, D.C., is not a U.S. state.

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Megan Gannon
Live Science Contributor
Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.