RAPID CITY, S.D. – A new national study from MyCounselor.Online on religious devotion places South Dakota as the ninth most religious state in the U.S., powered by high rates of church attendance and a large share of religious adherents across the state. The only state not in the bible belt to break the top 10.

The Top ten

1. Mississippi
2. Arkansas
3. South Carolina
4. Louisiana
5. Tennessee
6. Alabama
7. North Carolina
8. Oklahoma
9. South Dakota
10. Georgia

South Dakota was the only non-bible belt state in the top 10. The study shows South Dakota is second for monthly church attendance at 50%.

The full list of the most religious states in the US:

Rank	State	Importance of religion in one’s life (%)	Belief in God or universal spirit (%)	Congregations per 100K	Religious adherents (%)	Frequency of prayer (%)	Monthly church attendance (%)	Religion-related workforce per 100K	Religious events per 100K	Religious degrees per 100K	Bible Belt State (Yes/No)	Total Score
1	Mississippi	61	74	242.53	50	62	54	16.79	2.04	12.40	Yes	86.71
2	Arkansas	51	73	246.65	40	58	41	26.94	2.57	12.45	Yes	76.42
3	South Carolina	55	71	160.30	46	57	47	33.05	4.31	24.65	Yes	75.44
4	Louisiana	54	72	141.70	45	58	45	33.51	3.04	32.77	Yes	73.73
5	Tennessee	51	67	193.85	36	56	43	36.59	3.01	22.65	Yes	70.71
6	Alabama	51	66	214.08	40	50	44	27.99	2.31	21.22	Yes	70.56
7	North Carolina	51	65	155.18	41	54	39	34.99	3.21	38.99	Yes	67.60
8	Oklahoma	43	61	180.99	38	54	42	39.28	6.78	10.27	Yes	65.12
9	South Dakota	50	62	219.25	45	49	50	11.81	0.75	8.27	No	64.96
10	Georgia	49	66	120.34	38	56	38	28.44	3.19	17.50	Yes	61.94
11	Kentucky	43	63	180.72	37	53	39	31.75	1.73	12.41	Sometimes	60.46
12	Kansas	43	63	157.39	38	50	39	32.14	6.02	18.33	No	56.15
13	Texas	45	62	102.07	42	50	38	27.36	9.67	10.55	Sometimes	55.28
14	Utah	43	55	183.95	13	51	48	33.45	144.78	3.54	Sometimes	55.19
15	North Dakota	43	59	186.37	38	41	43	17.66	1.12	15.79	No	53.36
16	West Virginia	40	56	227.01	27	47	30	32.10	1.02	20.23	Sometimes	52.93
17	Idaho	45	58	137.78	37	43	40	23.72	67.91	8.02	No	52.60
18	Virginia	43	57	121.24	25	47	37	27.91	5.85	163.01	Sometimes	51.32
19	Missouri	38	55	147.17	33	44	36	36.00	5.41	16.19	Sometimes	49.75
20	Indiana	43	56	133.05	36	45	37	26.33	4.88	17.23	No	48.26
21	New Mexico	41	57	113.58	34	49	34	19.63	7.48	9.02	No	45.05
22	Montana	37	51	162.88	33	44	33	22.22	47.24	2.19	No	44.69
23	Nebraska	37	56	145.60	30	39	38	26.84	5.93	4.84	No	43.27
24	Florida	39	59	81.30	30	46	31	24.92	3.94	10.47	Sometimes	42.64
25	Alaska	34	50	172.35	26	38	25	34.96	26.89	0.81	No	38.91
26	Wyoming	35	53	166.07		42	33	29.48	71.17	11.35	No	38.64
27	Maryland	39	54	92.52	27	46	29	28.96	8.24	14.87	No	38.30
28	Delaware	40	56	97.58	29	43	33	14.80	1.87	0.00	No	37.74
29	Michigan	35	54	96.20	30	44	32	20.18	3.53	14.04	No	37.43
30	Ohio	37	52	117.85	28	42	32	19.24	2.01	17.63	No	37.30
31	Illinois	35	50	94.85	31	42	33	23.37	2.50	16.21	No	36.48
32	Pennsylvania	33	50	116.40	26	40	28	24.32	2.74	32.42	No	34.34
33	Arizona	36	51	73.33	27	45	32	16.20	29.64	19.45	No	34.32
34	New Jersey	34	51	65.36	29	42	31	16.76	1.66	79.44	No	33.87
35	Wisconsin	29	50	104.91	31	38	29	27.07	2.67	18.18	No	33.76
36	Minnesota	33	49	104.62	27	33	32	25.70	2.40	34.27	No	32.94
37	Iowa	28	47	151.14	21	31	30	33.94	5.51	36.30	No	32.24
38	Washington	30	44	80.41	29	35	27	25.05	22.83	15.65	No	28.19
39	New York	33	47	68.45	25	37	26	15.67	1.80	86.64	No	28.15
40	Colorado	30	46	75.05	24	38	27	22.78	12.31	15.41	No	26.63
41	California	31	46	59.61	24	39	27	23.96	10.59	13.42	No	26.00
42	Hawaii	29	48	97.85	21	34	19	27.16	9.65	19.71	No	25.06
43	Connecticut	33	44	80.12	23	39	22	10.17	3.24	29.70	No	24.27
44	Rhode Island	30	44	64.52	22	31	27	20.51	0.54	20.78	No	21.94
45	Nevada	30	48	49.60	19	41	20	6.23	31.32	0.12	No	19.92
46	Oregon	26	41	96.10	19	29	20	23.35	41.48	10.42	No	19.82
47	Vermont	16	30	127.98	35	22	17	13.88	1.70	42.42	No	17.48
48	Maine	23	38	115.53	17	32	19	22.05	1.13	13.68	No	17.48
49	Massachusetts	26	40	61.98	20	31	20	14.13	1.94	25.60	No	15.65
50	New Hampshire	16	33	76.08	15	25	18	12.01	0.85	6.57	No	5.79

Methodology

This study ranked US states by religiosity using 10 key metrics related to religion. Each metric was scaled and assigned a weight to reflect its impact on overall religiosity. The weighted scores were totaled for each state to produce a final ranking.

The metrics and their respective weights are:

• Importance of Religion in one’s life (%) – 15%
• Belief in God or Universal spirit (%) – 15%
• Congregations per 100,000 people – 15%
• Religious Adherents (%) – 15%
• Frequency of Prayer (%) – 10%
• Monthly Church Attendance (%) – 10%
• Religion-Related Workforce per 100,000 People – 5%
• Religious Events per 100,000 Residents – 5%
• Religious Degrees per 100,000 People – 5%
• Bible Belt State (Yes/No) – 5%

Sources
Pew Research Center
U.S. Religion Census
Data USA
Eventbrite