The Most & Least Religious US States

The South lived up to its Bible Belt label, holding nearly all of the top 10 most religious states, according to a new Gallup survey revealing the most and least religious U.S. states.

The results are based on telephone interviews conducted between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012, with a random sample of more than 348,000 adults, ages 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

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Mississippi: 58 percent are very religious
Utah: 56 percent
Alabama: 56 percent
Louisiana: 53 percent
Arkansas: 52 percent
South Carolina: 52 percent
Tennessee: 50 percent
North Carolina: 50 percent
Georgia: 48 percent
Oklahoma: 48 percent
Texas: 47 percent
South Dakota: 46 percent
Kentucky: 45 percent
Idaho: 45 percent
Nebraska: 44 percent
New Mexico: 43 percent
Indiana: 43 percent
Missouri: 42 percent
West Virginia: 42 percent
North Dakota: 42 percent
Virginia: 41 percent
Iowa: 41 percent
Pennsylvania: 40 percent
Ohio: 38 percent
Minnesota: 38 percent
Illinois: 38 percent
Florida: 38 percent
Maryland: 37 percent
Wisconsin: 37 percent
Michigan: 37 percent
Arizona: 37 percent
New Jersey: 35 percent
Delaware: 35 percent
California: 35 percent
Montana: 34 percent
Colorado: 34 percent
Wyoming: 33 percent
New York: 32 percent
Hawaii: 33 percent
Nevada (tie): 31 percent
Hawaii (tie): 31 percent
Alaska (tie): 31 percent
Connecticut (tie): 31 percent
Washington (tie): 31 percent
District of Columbia: 30 percent
Rhode Island: 29 percent
Oregon: 29 percent
Massachusetts: 27 percent
Maine: 24 percent
New Hampshire: 23 percent
Vermont: 19 percent are very religious

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.