Washington 6th least religious state!

Unfortunately, my friends in Vermont have us beat, but that’s not too bad.

The new Gallup poll on the importance of religion in the U.S., an analysis of more than 350,000 interviews conducted by Gallup in 2008, finds (predictably) that Mississippi (85%), Alabama (82%), South Carolina (80%), Tennessee (79%), Louisiana (78%), and Arkansas (78%) are the most religious states. Vermont (42%), New Hampshire (46%), Maine (48%), and Massachusetts (48%) are the least religious states.

Slightly more than half of Alaskans (51%) and Washingtonians (52%) say religion is important in their daily lives.

In addition, there may be differing “state cultures” that are themselves associated with life approaches that give varying degrees of credence to religion as a guiding force.”

So, on average, 65% of Americans said that religion was important in their daily lives, and those states that have (and I’m generalizing here) more independent cultures, don’t really have much use for it.