Church Attendance Highest in South, Lowest in New England
Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006 Posted: 7:53:47AM EST
The latest Gallup poll found that 42 percent of Americans say they attend church or synagogue once a week or almost every week and among the frequent churchgoers, most are from the South while the New England states have the lowest percentage of church attendance.
Based on a large sample size of more than 68,000 interviews conducted over the past two years, the survey saw as high a percentage as 58 in Alabama while New Hampshire and Vermont showed the lowest attendance rate of 24 percent.
Survey results revealed a wide variation across 48 states, but overall patterns clearly indicated the highest church attendance in the traditionally Southern states. Of the Southern states, Virginia had the lowest reported churchgoer rate with 44 percent, which still lies above the national average. Church attendance is also high in certain Midwestern states, including Nebraska with 53 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum, the New England states show church attendance rates in the 20 to 30 percent range with the highest among those being Connecticut at 37 percent.
The highest most populous states reported the following rates: California, 32 percent; Texas, 49 percent; New York, 33 percent; Florida, 39 percent; and Illinois, 42 percent.
The regional survey follows a Gallup study that showed the highest church attendance rate to be among Evangelicals. Evangelical churchgoers were found to range in the 60 percentile.
Also concluded from church attendance surveys were subgroup patterns. Women are more likely to attend church than men, older Americans are more likely to attend than the younger, and blacks are more likely to attend than whites.
The Gallup poll conducted 68,031 telephone interviews with Americans aged 18 and older from January 2004 through March 2006.
