Georgia ranks among the most religious states, according to Pew’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, which paints a picture of religious behavior in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Georgia is tied for 10th overall when it comes to religion, the Pew Research Center said Tuesday.
According to the study, 38% in Georgia are highly religious, based on an overall scale of religiousness.
Breaking it down, 49% of Georgians say religion is very important in their lives (ninth in the nation), 38% say they attend religious services at least monthly (15th in the nation), 56% say they pray daily (fifth in the nation), and 66% say they believe in God or a universal spirit with absolute certainty (sixth in the nation).
Georgia is tied for 10th overall with Kansas, Oklahoma and North Dakota.
Rounding out the top 10 are:
- No. 8, Alabama and Arkansas (tied)
- No. 7, North Carolina
- No. 6, Utah
- No. 5, Tennessee
- No. 3, Louisiana and South Dakota (tied)
- No. 2, South Carolina
- No. 1, Mississippi
The least religious states in the nation, according to the Pew study, are the following:
- No. 42, Rhode Island
- No. 43, Iowa and Hawaii (tied)
- No. 45, Massachusetts
- No. 46, Oregon and Nevada (tied)
- No. 48, District of Columbia
- No. 49, Maine
- No. 50, New Hampshire
- No. 51, Vermont
The study was conducted in 2023 and 2024 among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents.
The Pew Research Center has also found that the decline in the number of Americans identifying as Christians has shown signs of stabilizing, with the percentage holding steady at slightly above 60% over the past five years.
Currently, 62% of U.S. adults currently identify as Christians. This represents a 9% drop since the last survey in 2014, and a 16-point decrease since the first survey in 2007, when 78% of U.S. adults identified as Christians. Despite this long-term decline, the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable between 60% and 64% from 2019 to 2024.
Religiously unaffiliated adults, often referred to as religious “nones,” account for 29% of the population, a figure that has plateaued in recent years after a long period of growth.
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The study says that the largest subgroups of Christians in the U.S. are Protestants, who now make up 40% of U.S. adults, and Catholics, who account for 19%. Other Christian groups, including Orthodox Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses, make up about 3% of the population. Both Protestant and Catholic numbers have decreased significantly since 2007, although they have remained relatively stable in recent years.
The share of Americans identifying with religions other than Christianity has been trending upward, now standing at 7%. This includes 1.7% who identify as Jewish, 1.2% as Muslim, 1.1% as Buddhist, and 0.9% as Hindu.
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