Mississippi is most religious state

PRINCETON, N.J., March 28 (UPI) -- Mississippi is the most religious state in America -- with 59 percent considering themselves very religious -- while Vermont is least religious, a poll found.

The Gallup poll classified 40 percent of Americans nationwide as very religious -- based on their statement that religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week. Thirty-two percent of Americans are non-religious, based on their statement that religion is not an important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend religious services.

The remaining 28 percent of Americans are moderately religious -- because they say religion is important but they do not attend services regularly, because they say religion is not important but still attend services.

Fifty-nine percent of Mississippians said they were very religious and 11 percent non-religious, while 23 percent of Vermonters said they were very religious and 58 percent were non-religious.

Following Mississippi as the most religious were: Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma and Utah.

Following Vermont as the least religious were: New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, the District of Columbia and New York.

The Gallup Daily tracking survey of 353,492 U.S. adults -- conducted Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2011 -- has a margin of error of 1 percentage point for the entire country and 3 percentage points to 4 percentage points for individual states.