Using data from the 1980 Churches and Church Membership Study, this list ranks U.S. states on the highest total number of adherents and the highest percent of the population in Mainline Protestant denominations. You can sort the list by clicking on the column headings. Most historically African American denominations are not included in the 1980 congregation and membership totals.
Congregational "adherents" include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services.
[More information on the data source]
Complete List
| Ranking | State | Adherents | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 238,581 | 36.6 |
| 2 | South Dakota | 231,664 | 33.5 |
| 3 | Iowa | 918,122 | 31.6 |
| 4 | Minnesota | 1,137,165 | 27.9 |
| 5 | Nebraska | 433,332 | 27.6 |
| 6 | Kansas | 577,106 | 24.4 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 475,552 | 24.4 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | 2,683,854 | 22.6 |
| 9 | North Carolina | 1,121,696 | 19.1 |
| 10 | Wisconsin | 871,873 | 18.5 |
| 11 | Delaware | 109,283 | 18.4 |
| 12 | Virginia | 949,002 | 17.8 |
| 13 | Ohio | 1,903,607 | 17.6 |
| 14 | Indiana | 948,839 | 17.3 |
| 15 | South Carolina | 502,717 | 16.1 |
| 16 | Oklahoma | 466,409 | 15.4 |
| 17 | Maryland | 640,216 | 15.2 |
| 18 | Vermont | 75,908 | 14.8 |
| 19 | Montana | 116,306 | 14.8 |
| 20 | Illinois | 1,494,207 | 13.1 |
| 21 | Connecticut | 403,909 | 13.0 |
| 22 | Missouri | 634,371 | 12.9 |
| 23 | Wyoming | 60,012 | 12.8 |
| 24 | Georgia | 690,685 | 12.6 |
| 25 | Tennessee | 579,970 | 12.6 |
| 26 | Maine | 138,079 | 12.3 |
| 27 | Mississippi | 305,593 | 12.1 |
| 28 | Arkansas | 278,251 | 11.7 |
| 29 | Texas | 1,612,556 | 11.3 |
| 29 | Alabama | 441,148 | 11.3 |
| 30 | Colorado | 325,229 | 11.3 |
| 31 | Kentucky | 408,369 | 11.2 |
| 32 | Michigan | 1,005,203 | 10.9 |
| 33 | Washington | 438,451 | 10.6 |
| 34 | New Hampshire | 95,947 | 10.4 |
| 35 | New Jersey | 762,488 | 10.4 |
| 36 | Florida | 802,464 | 9.9 |
| 37 | Rhode Island | 92,723 | 9.8 |
| 38 | New York | 1,702,904 | 9.7 |
| 39 | Oregon | 231,717 | 8.8 |
| 40 | Massachusetts | 494,542 | 8.6 |
| 41 | Idaho | 76,998 | 8.2 |
| 42 | New Mexico | 100,371 | 7.7 |
| 43 | Arizona | 183,220 | 6.7 |
| 44 | Louisiana | 255,944 | 6.1 |
| 45 | Alaska | 24,260 | 6.0 |
| 46 | California | 1,321,604 | 5.6 |
| 47 | Hawaii | 42,774 | 4.4 |
| 48 | Nevada | 27,915 | 3.5 |
| 49 | Utah | 28,343 | 1.9 |
Source
The data presented in this list were collected by the Glenmary Research Center and include statistics for 111 Judeo-Christian church bodies, including number of churches and adherents. Bernard Quinn, Herman Anderson, Martin Bradley, Paul Goetting and Peggy Shriver supervised the collection. These data originally appeared in Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1980, published by the Glenmary Research Center.
[More information about this data source]
