Mississippians Go to Church the Most

According to a new report by Gallup , Missipians, Mormons, and African Americans are the most frequent churchgoers in the nation:

Well over half of all residents in a number of Southern states and Utah report attending religious services weekly or almost every week, compared to below a third who attend frequently in New England and several Western states. At the extremes, the range in average church attendance between Mississippi and Vermont is 40 points.

One explanation for these wide differences in religious behavior is the substantial differences by state in religious identity.

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.