Unchurched Belt

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American Religious Identification Survey
. States in gray have "no religion" as the most common affiliation.

The Unchurched Belt is a region in the far Northwestern United States that has low rates of religious participation. The term derives from Bible Belt and the notion of the unchurched.

The term was first applied to the

Washington had the United States' lowest church membership rates in 1971, and that there was little change in this pattern between 1971 and 1980.[1][2] Since 1980, however, California's church membership rate has increased; in 2000, the state had a higher percentage of church members than several states in the Northeast and Midwest.[1] Some religious groups are undercounted in surveys of religious membership.[1]

As of 2000[update], the six states and provinces reported to have the lowest rate of religious adherence in North America were

Gallup poll comparing belief in God among U.S. regions found that only 59% of residents in the Western United States believe in God, compared to 80% in the East, 83% in the Midwest, and 86% in the South.[7]

A 2011 Gallup poll showed that when it comes to the number of people seeing religion as important in everyday life, New Hampshire and Vermont were the least religious, both with 23%, followed up with 25% in Maine.[8]

There has been debate as to whether the Western United States is still the most irreligious part of the United States, due to New England surpassing it as the region with the highest percentage of residents unaffiliated with any religion.

American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) ranked Vermont as the state with the highest percentage of residents claiming no religion at 34%,[10][11] but a 2009 Gallup poll ranked Oregon as the state with the highest percentage of residents identifying with "No religion, Atheist, or Agnostic", at 24.6%.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 4148278. Archived from the original
    on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  2. S2CID 220789101
    .
  3. ^ a b "All Denominations--Rates of Adherence Per 1000 Population (2000) *Adjusted*". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
  4. ^ a b Newport, Frank (April 27, 2006). "Church Attendance Lowest in New England, Highest in South". Gallup. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  5. ^ "North American Religion Atlas". Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis.
  6. ISBN 0-7591-0635-5
  7. ^ Newport, Frank (July 28, 2008). "Belief in God Far Lower in Western U.S." Gallup. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  8. ^ Nigel Barber (13 November 2014). "Why Religion is so Weak in Maine". Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  9. ^ Lin, Joanna (March 16, 2009). "New England surpasses West Coast as least religious region in America, study finds". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  10. ^ Kosmin, Barry A.; Keysar, Ariela (March 2009). "American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008)" (PDF). Trinity College. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  11. ^ Kosmin, Barry A.; et al. (2009). "American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population" (PDF). Trinity College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  12. ^ Newport, Frank (August 7, 2009). "Religious Identity: States Differ Widely". Gallup. Retrieved 2010-01-22.

External links

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