The Religious Regions of the U.S.

[trotsky]

http://news.gallup.com/poll/232223/religious-regions.aspx

The Southwest and Southeast regions of the United States lived up to their reputation as the home of the nation's Bible Belt in 2017, producing nine of the nation's 11 most religious states. In contrast, the Pacific and New England regions have 10 of the 11 least religious states for the year.



Forty-five percent of Americans living in the Southwest and 43% in the Southeast are "very religious" -- a classification based on how important people say religion is to them and how often they attend religious services. They are the only two of the nation's eight regions with at least 40% of their residents classified as very religious. The percentage is below 30% in the Pacific and New England regions, while religiosity is in the 30s across the center of the country from the Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic.

...Nationally, the level of religiosity varies significantly by age, race, ethnicity and religious affiliation. Mormons are most likely to be very religious (73%), followed by Protestants (50%), Muslims (45%), Catholics (40%) and Jews (18%). Religiosity increases with age: Only 28% of those younger than 30 are very religious, compared with 47% of those aged 65 and older. Blacks (48%) are more likely than whites or Hispanics (36% each) to be very religious.

These factors -- especially differences in religious affiliation -- are major contributors to the large state-to-state differences in the percentage of Americans who are very religious. For example, people living in Mississippi are more than three times as likely to be classified as very religious as those living in Vermont -- 59% versus 16%. The full results for each state are available here.

Another map:

[Cartoonist]

1. I'm glad I live in a lemon-lime state

Still, it seems like there's a church on every street.

[thucythucy]

2. In part it's something of a vicious circle.

I've heard it said, regarding the South, that if you live there and ever think you're going to be poor, sick, or unemployed (or any combination thereof) the best thing to do is "join a church," since the social safety net is so frayed or non-existent. Knowing people in such situations in deep South states and in New England (where the safety net is so much better), I tend to think there's some truth to this.