Utah highest, Vermont lowest on newest church attendance poll

c. 2014 Salt Lake Tribune

(RNS) More Utahns go to church every week—51 percent—than any other state, according to a new Gallup poll.

That statistic is “a direct result of (Utah)’s 59 percent Mormon population,” Gallup’s Frank Newport writes, “as Mormons have the highest religious service attendance of any major religious group in the U.S.”

The next most-frequent church attendees are in the South—Mississippi (47 percent), Alabama (46 percent), Louisiana (46 percent), and Arkansas (45 percent). In fact, 10 of the top 12 churchgoing states are in the South.

At the bottom of the list is Vermont, Gallup reports, “where 17 percent of residents say they attend religious services every week,” Newport writes. Just ahead of the Green Mountain State are New Hampshire (20 percent), Maine (20 percent), Massachusetts (22 percent), Washington (24 percent), and Oregon (24 percent). Half of the bottom 10 are in New England.

To determine these rankings, Gallup Daily drew on “tracking interviews throughout 2014 with 177,030 U.S. adults,” the pollster reported. Statewide margins of error range from 3 percent to 6 percent.

Respondents were asked, “How often do you attend church, synagogue or mosque—at least once a week, almost every week, about once a month, seldom or never?” Surveyors then added up those who say “at least once a week.”