The Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study, surveying nearly 37,000 adults, finds Vermont to be the least religious state with just 13% classified as highly religious. Five of the ten least religious states are in New England, while Mississippi leads the nation at 50% highly religious. The report shows large shifts in nonaffiliation since 2007 in some states and a possible national plateau in nonaffiliation around 29% since 2019. Regional divides between secular and devout parts of the country have persisted for nearly two decades.
Vermont Tops Pew’s List As The Least Religious State — A Closer Look At The 2023–24 Findings
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The Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study — based on responses from nearly 37,000 adults in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. — finds striking regional differences in religious commitment. One small New England state sits well below the rest of the country on multiple measures of deep religious engagement, while several Southern states and Utah remain the most devout.
Key Findings
Vermont ranks lowest: only 13% of adults meet Pew's definition of "highly religious" (a top score of 7–8 on an eight-point index). Just 17% of Vermonters report attending religious services at least monthly, compared with a national monthly attendance rate of 33%. Nearly 44% of Vermont adults score 0–1 on Pew's religiosity scale — the highest share of minimal religious engagement in the nation.
New England dominates the bottom of the rankings: five of the ten least religious states are in that region (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut). At the other extreme, Mississippi is the most religious state: 50% of adults are classified as highly religious. Nine states exceed 40% highly religious, mostly in the South, with Utah as the outlier due to its large Latter-day Saint population.
How Pew Measured "Highly Religious"
Pew's index combines four measures: frequency of prayer, absolute certainty in belief in God or a universal spirit, how much religion matters in daily life, and frequency of attending religious services. Each question carries up to two points for a maximum score of eight; respondents scoring 7 or 8 are labeled "highly religious." About one-quarter of U.S. adults meet that threshold.
Notable State Trends
New Hampshire illustrates rapid secularization: the share of adults who say they are religiously unaffiliated climbed from 27% in 2007 to 48% in 2023–24. Massachusetts, founded by Puritans, now ranks sixth least religious, with the unaffiliated share rising from 17% to 37% since 2007. Utah remains religiously distinctive but also saw a big rise in nonaffiliation (16% to 34% since 2007).
Iowa is the only Midwestern state in the bottom 10 (21% highly religious). Hawaii
Broader Patterns
After years of steady growth in religious nonaffiliation, the national share of adults who are unaffiliated has largely plateaued at about 29% since 2019. Pew cautions that this may be a pause rather than a reversal: younger adults under 25 remain far less religious on every measure than older cohorts, and historically no generation has become more religious as it ages.
Bottom line: regional divides have held steady for nearly two decades. New England and the Pacific Northwest remain the most secular corners of the country, while the South and Utah retain the highest concentrations of deeply religious adults.
This article is based on data from the Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study.
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