A new Pew report entitled "How religious is your state?" is giving reporters an opportunity to spell out local angles of national statistics. Meanwhile, a recent Pew study on worldwide religion freedom has generated less coverage.
The Pew study (which is not related to the 2000 map pictured here) on the states examines four signs of religiosity:
Which of the 50 states has the most religious population? Since there are many ways to define "religious," there is no single answer to this question. But to give a sense of how the states stack up, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life used polling data to rank them on four measures: the importance of religion in people's lives, frequency of attendance at worship services, frequency of prayer and absolute certainty of belief in God.
Mississippi wins the title of the most religious state, while New Hampshire/Vermont (some small states were combined in the research) ranks last at #46. Julia Duin of The Washington Times explored the national angle by focusing on Mississippi:
The South has risen again, at least in terms of belief in God.
Utah ranks #2 in worship attendance but #12 overall on the Pew list, leading Scott Taylor of the Deseret News to describe the state as "above normal" in religiosity:
Utah is a leading state for worship service attendance and, when compared to its United States counterparts, is also well above average in frequency of prayer, importance of religion and certainty of belief of God.
Jeff Mapes of The Oregonian writes in his politics blog that his region is no longer the least religious in America:
A new survey of religious attitudes makes is very clear that the Northwest corner of the country is no longer the furthest outside the church pews. That now clearly describes the other side of the continent, in the Northeast.
Oregon and Washington still remain pretty secular states compared to the rest of America.
Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the Irregular Times portrayed the results as a verdict on declining American religiosity:
Evangelical activists keep on insisting that the United States is a Christian nation, but a new survey shows that in many parts of the country, the majority population isn’t even serious about religion in general, much less Christianity in particular.
It's been a busy December for the folks at Pew. Earlier this month Pew released its controversial 22-page report, "Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths." Coverage of that report was explored here.
But another Pew study promoted in a December 16 press release has received less attention. The "Global Restrictions on Religion" study found that two-in-three people in the world today live in countries with high levels of restrictions on religion. The in-depth report focuses on two major areas to compile its Government Restrictions Index and the Social Hostilities Index. From the Pew press release:
The study analyzes more than 30 measures of restrictions on religion, 20 of which are based on government actions, such as constitutional limitations or prohibitions on religious speech. An analysis of social hostilities by private actors, such as religion-related terrorism and violence between religious groups, is also included in the report.
The Christian Science Monitor's news blog and Religious News Service did brief reports on the study, but most U.S. papers passed on this important story, unlike their foreign counterparts.