There are many states in America that are religious, with Alabama, Mississippi, and other Southern states ranking high in the Pew Research Center's latest study.
Its recent Religious Landscape Study revealed that both Alabama and Mississippi were tied as the most religious states in the U.S., with 77 percent of its respondents from those two states saying they are "highly religious."
More than half of Alabama respondents said they attend worship services weekly, while 73 percent said they pray daily. A whopping 82 percent said they believe in God with absolute certainty.
As for Mississippi, under half of them (or 49 percent) said they attend worship services weekly, while 75 percent of them pray daily. Just like in Alabama, 82 percent of them said they believe in God with absolutely certainty.
On the flip side, the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire ranked lowest in the list of religious states, both of them getting only 33 percent. They are followed by Vermont and Maine, both with 34 percent.
"Roughly one-in-five residents of these states report attending religious services at least weekly, and roughly half or fewer say they are certain of God's existence," the study said.
Even though there are several ways of defining what it means to be religious, the study focused on four aspects: worship attendance, prayer frequency, belief in God and the self-described importance of religion in one's life.
"What does it mean to be 'highly religious'? In our analysis, this includes any adult who reports at least two of four highly observant behaviours – attending religious services at least weekly, praying at least daily, believing in God with absolute certainty and saying that religion is very important to them — while not reporting a low level of religious observance in any of these areas, such as seldom or never attending religious services, seldom or never praying, not believing in God and saying that religion is 'not too' or 'not at all' important in their life," the study explained. "We also define a person as 'highly religious' if they report three highly religious behaviours and a low level of religiosity on a fourth measure."
