Mississippi led the nation in church attendance last year, just like in 2008, according to a recent Gallup poll. Of the 10 states with the highest church attendance, all of them, except Utah, are located in the South.


The states with the lowest church attendance are either in New England or the West, and the researchers have some idea why:

The Southern states have high proportions of residents who identify as Protestant, non-Catholic Christians—faith traditions with high average church attendance levels. Residents of New England, the Northwest, and other Western states are more likely to have no religious identity, usually associated with low church attendance. And the majority of Utah residents are Mormons, a group with the highest average church attendance level of any major religious group in the country.
Ethnic and racial differences may account for some of the state-by-state differences in churchgoing. Black Americans have the highest church-attendance averages of any major racial or ethnic group, and Southern states have a relatively high proportion of blacks in their populations.

But another possibility brings to mind the kind of geographic “big sort” that journalist Bill Bishop describes us undergoing; it appears we’re moving ourselves into communities where we cluster with like-minded people, creating more homogeneous states, as the researchers suggest:

Individuals who are attracted to Vermont and Alaska, by way of example, may be the types of people who are less inclined to participate in religious services than are those attracted to Southern or Midwestern states.