US States With The Lowest Religious Service Attendance

The United States (US) is considered to be among the religion-conscious countries in the world. One of the methods of affirming this fact is to understand the history of holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas which are celebrated in the US The Constitution and the National Anthem of the US have religious connotations in them. The most popular religion in America is Christianity. The highest religious service attendance in the United States is observed within the US area known as the Bible Belt in states such as Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. On the other hand, the states with the lowest religious service attendance are Vermont (17% of the population), New Hampshire and Maine (20%), Massachusetts (22%), Washington and Oregon (24%), Colorado, Hawaii, and Connecticut (25%), and Alaska (26%).

US States With the Lowest Religious Service Attendance

Vermont - 17%

The religious composition of adults in Vermont is such that 54% are Christians, 8% are non-Christians, and 37% are unaffiliated. The unaffiliated people are either atheists, agnostics, or believe in nothing in particular. According to Pew Forum, 47% of the adults in Vermont seldom or never attend church and only 17% attend church regularly. Although some people attend church once or twice a month, most people attend church only at for special occasions such as at Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and for weddings.

New Hampshire and Maine - 20% 

Maine and New Hampshire’s weekly service attendant rate was 20%. Some reasons for the low religious attendance include few evangelical mega-churches, people are quite busy, and people do not ascribe significance to religion. Race also impacts religious service attendance. Statistics show that African Americans are in general more religiously inclined than white Americans, so states with smaller African America populations tend to be less religiously inclined. Maine has a small African American population at only 1.2% as of 2016 and New Hampshire sat at 1.1% in 2010.

Massachusetts - 22%

The rate of religious service attendance in Massachusetts is only 22% based on the number of people who attend church weekly. Younger generations are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated with 18 to 29-year-olds at 37% and 30 to 49-year-olds at 40%. 39% reported not believing in God at all and 47% reported finding religion not at all important. 

Measures of Religious Observance

The measures of religious observance include worship attendance, prayer frequency, belief in God, and self-described importance of religion in one’s life. Low level of religious observance often means that one places little or no importance of religion in their life, they seldom or never pray, and they do not believe in God.