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Top 10 Least Religious U.S. States

Which U.S. states have the fewest percent of people who consider religion to be "somewhat" or "very" important.
Source: Wikipedia
Quiz by Keltonet
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Last updated: September 29, 2019
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First submittedJanuary 18, 2017
Times taken27,383
Average score60.0%
Rating4.48
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%
State
57
Vermont
60
New Hampshire
63
Maine
63
Massachusetts
67
Washington
%
State
69
Montana
69
Connecticut
70
Alaska
70
Oregon
72
New York
+11
Level 87
Sep 30, 2019
Really... California is more religious than Montana?
+18
Level 88
Sep 30, 2019
Montana is a shocker by all the people I've known who import themselves there thinking they're cowboys. The real locals must be sick of that crap.
+11
Level 65
Mar 23, 2020
True, although I'm not American, I lived in Montana for almost 5 years. Locals are quite nice people and surprisingly open-minded. Add to that the beautiful natural scenery and you get a really cold but enjoyable state to live in. Gotta go back there someday to visit
+28
Level 82
Sep 30, 2019
California has a lot of Catholic immigrants
+11
Level 71
Mar 23, 2020
Not just immigrants, most of the hispanic population comes from when manifest destiny. When the US beat Mexico in the Mexican-American War, they took a lot of land all the way to the coast, including California.

You're right there are a lot of catholic, hispanic immigrants in recent years but a lot of the catholics are there because they live on land that was conquered from the Mexican Empire.

+5
Level 62
Apr 11, 2020
California also has a big prison population. Not sure if they’re counted in this poll, but people tend to find religion when they’re in the box for a long time.
+8
Level 73
May 19, 2020
there weren't very many people in california before the US conquered it, and most of them were native americans. the hispanic population was limited to a few thousand ranchers who were quickly overwhelmed by american settlers during the gold rush. some hispanic areas in new mexico and texas have groups of people descended from when spain and mexico controlled the area, but california's hispanic population is almost entirely from immigration in the last few decades.
+3
Level 38
Oct 28, 2019
Hispanics and black people.
+12
Level 88
Sep 30, 2019
Go, Puritan New England.
+3
Level 71
Mar 23, 2020
The Puritans were ultra-orthodox Protestants...
+7
Level 56
Jul 13, 2021
That's the joke.
+8
Level 84
Sep 30, 2019
I can see the reasoning behind using Voltaire's picture - but wouldn't it be preferable to use a picture of an irreligious American; say Madalyn Murray O'Hair, or (by naturalization) Christopher Hitchens.
+2
Level 83
Mar 30, 2021
Voltaire wasn't the most irreligious Enlightenment philosopher anyway. He was a deist, and opposed the materialistic atheist views of fellows such as Diderot.
+16
Level 80
Sep 30, 2019
Surprised to see even the least religious state is still pushing 60% who consider religion important.
+12
Level 82
Sep 30, 2019
Montana and Alaska surprised me
+2
Level 70
Mar 23, 2020
I don't know about Montana but Alaska has a younger population than average, and younger people are generally less religious. Furthermore the reason why there are so many young people has nothing to do with religious opposition to contraception, which I expect it does in some other states with a young population.
+3
Level 61
Dec 23, 2020
Cough Utah Cough
+18
Level 30
Oct 28, 2019
Anyone notice these are all our most northern states? Too busy trying to keep warm to think about god, LOL!
+19
Level 38
Oct 28, 2019
Also the whitest, and when you compare the level of atheism in Europe vs the rest of the world, it makes sense.
+31
Level 66
Mar 5, 2020
As a Northerner, I can confirm that the reason for this is that when there is 5 feet of snow and its -10 degrees out with 30 mph winds, we have little to no faith in god.
+4
Level 67
Mar 23, 2020
Thanks WolfCam, you just gave me a laughing fit. Here in the Netherlands we hardly have so much snow, can get windy though. But religiosity is quite low here. I recently looked up the stats on this, the traditional Western religions (christianity/islam/judaism) are just belowe 50% of the population here (roughly 17,5 million folks). 'Spirituality' though isn't....still enough people floating around with that in their heads. In faiths anyway even those who do believe tend to be more individualistic with it, 'leaving god at the front door' when they go out to join community.

Next to this, and this can apply in many countries, is the cultural-religiosity. Folks who hold on to faiths for their unifying factors, they don't believe but do like it as a means to a social end (getting together, joined participations and such).

(couldn't help sharing this, faiths fascinate me, and i'm like an enthusiastic amateur in delving into these things).

+1
Level 73
Mar 29, 2023
I think the white thing might be more correlation than causation. Most European immigrants to the United States were NOT atheist when they came over (and I hope we can both agree that atheism doesn't really have anything to do with genetics).

I don't know for sure what the cause of the correlation would be… I'd guess more recent immigrants and their descendants are more likely to be religious, but that still doesn't explain everything. Either way, I don't think white -> atheism makes sense.

+1
Level 53
Oct 29, 2019
Was completely guessing with the last 3 and didn't put in a single wrong answer. Wow!
+4
Level 43
Mar 23, 2020
Montana would be around guess #30 for me.
+3
Level 88
Mar 23, 2020
I was surprised to see Massachusetts here for some reason. I don't know a whole lot about the state, but I had suspected there to be a large number of Irish Catholics.
+2
Level 65
Mar 24, 2020
Yes, Catholicism is the predominant religion in Massachusetts (~34%) but a majority of Massachusetts Catholics are Christmas and Easter or less Catholics
+1
Level 65
Dec 19, 2022
The Catholic Church largely lost its stronghold in New England after its acts of sexual abuse were exposed by the Boston Globe in 2002
+2
Level 62
Mar 23, 2020
57% is still very high. I imagine in some European cities like London or Amsterdam the rates are <20%
+1
Level 28
Mar 23, 2020
Fun quiz! 60 seconds is a bit tight for a non-American though. I was still typing when it ended. 90 seconds would probably have been enough.
+1
Level 35
Mar 23, 2020
This American had to try several times to type it that fast. Counselor in junior high school pulled me out of typing and put me in French class saying that if I could type, that's what every job would make me do and I'd be miserable. I needed to go to college, which required a foreign language then. So I can't type anything except with the middle finger of my left hand, watching the keyboard. It's can fly, but not like these kids who grew up with computers, using all 10 fingers/thumbs. :)
+1
Level 37
Mar 24, 2020
Same here. Because I was college-bound I was not allowed to take typing. After paying someone a small fortune to type three papers for me in college, I grabbed a handful of quarters, walked to the school library and taught myself to type!
+1
Level 56
Nov 11, 2020
I spent a good deal of the time trying to spell Massachussettss. Masachussetts. Erm...
+1
Level 62
May 19, 2021
Massachusetts
+1
Level 37
Apr 21, 2020
I am surprised as an Oregonian. At least, where I live, there is a church on every block or so.
+4
Level 77
Oct 14, 2020
Oregon and Washington were two of my first guesses. Very young, liberal hotspots tend to breed atheism or at the very least a lack of interest or need for religion.
+1
Level 65
Dec 19, 2022
Could depend on where you live in Oregon perhaps?

I'd assume that Portland is where most of the state's unaffiliated live. Maybe the eastern part of the state is less like that.

+1
Level 76
Apr 24, 2020
Is there any reason why all of these states are in the north?
+3
Level 59
Nov 8, 2020
very white.

im the only black person i know in New Hampshire

+1
Level 70
Apr 17, 2021
Surprized to not see Nevada here
+1
Level 51
Nov 16, 2021
cough cough* Vegas
+1
Level 76
Jan 27, 2022
Went with Vermont as my first guess. That's my win for today.
+1
Level 90
Mar 19, 2023
Six of these ten states are also in the top ten for highest life expectancy. Less religion = more exercise?
+1
Level 79
Jan 29, 2024
A lot of the states on here have a considerable or (for the US) a high percentage of Catholics. In Europe, it's rather vice-versa. The catholic countries are the ones that have stayed more devout (or conservative) to this day while the protestant countries have become quite irreligious. Says a lot about American protestantism. Or maybe about American Catholicism...