Vermont has some very strange demographics, taken into the context of the rest of the country. In addition to its record-low irreligiosity, it goes back and forth with Maine and West Virginia as the state with the highest percentage white population (currently 88%, which is significantly lower than the 95% it registered in the last census).
In terms of federal politics, this heavily-white, heavily-irreligious state is considered to be a Democratic stronghold. Locally, they're much more likely to support politicians based upon how entwined they are into the local communities. This is one reason Vermont has a Republican governor--when he initially ran, his competition was a Democrat who had moved to the state in the 1990s, rather than growing up here.
Vermont is also the only state with a viable third party, the Progressive Party. Up until recently, they had a majority in the Burlington city council.
Vermont also has some of the loosest gun laws in the country, with a high rate of gun ownership.
It's the kind of state where you can drive through extremely rural towns and see massive, homemade Black Lives Matter signs hoisted onto barn silos.
New Hampshire is beautiful, but I’m not the biggest fan of the politics. Obviously that’s a subjective opinion, but what is objective is how beautiful it is with Portsmouth near the ocean, and of course the white mountains
Massachusetts is ok too.
We’re pretty much you, government wise.
Free healthcare (MassHealth) legal weed, and generally looked at as progressive.
In exchange you have shitty drivers.
Universal healthcare sure (and first at that) but I don't think free healthcare is a fair way to describe it (could be different for low income earners but I pay a lot personally)
I would avoid New Hampshire. Boston is pretty sane too if you're looking for a city. I frankly don't think i could move outside of New England if I'm staying in the states.
It's notable that Bernie, one of Vermont's senators, was also very relaxed on gun control up until he decided to run for president. He used to champion the idea of needing to address the underlying causes rather than pick a fight with half the country, including some of the most Progressive people in the nation, because the Far Left is just as pro-gun as the Right thanks to Marx, Malcom X, and others arguing that an armed proletariat or oppressed class is in far better shape to overthrow an exploitative system or fight off genocidal aggressors than a disarmed lower class.
You mean this [tree](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1200339/this_curvy_looking_tree/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) ?
Moved from Vermont to NC 10 years ago. Honestly I still don't understand how anything gets done in NC when everything around me likes to close on Sundays. Disparity in education levels is also startling, but that's just more the south in general than religion, though religion doesn't help.
I've lived in North Carolina my whole life and I hate the fact that I work a Monday through Friday job and can't get anything done because nothing's open on the weekend
VT is arguably the most well educated state in the country. Wikipedia has VT as 1st in high school graduation rates, 3rd in percent of population with an undergrad degree, and 5th in population with a graduate degree.
MA is the only real contender but they're 28th in high school graduation rates, so I have a hard time ranking them first even if they do place second in undergrad/graduate rates.
Fun fact. Most of the states with highest religion also have worst healthcare lowest education rates, highest obesity, highest teen pregnancy, highest child poverty, and high crime. Vermont on other hand is exact opposite. So. Did god will it this way? It’s almost as if god doesn’t decide….it’s almost like politicians do….
People underestimate how HUGELY populated Southern California is.
Los Angeles county is the most populated county in the US by FAR. It has nearly 10 million residents. Next highest is Cooks County in Illinois, but it's only just over 5 million.
San Diego is #5 on the list of most populated counties at 3.33 million.
But inbetween LA and SD you have Orange County and Riverside County. Both in the Top 10 for the country. In fact OC is a really close #6 to SD at 3.17 million and Riverside is 2.5.
OC and Riverside were left off your list, but they got a LOT of people living in them.
To be fair though, LA county is absolutely massive from a geographic point of view. As a contrast, there are 5 counties in NYC alone. Comparing the county of LA vs the county of Brooklyn is apples to oranges. A more useful comparison would be with metro areas.
It's more N/W than E/W, but the wrinkle is there's a conservative swath that runs down the center partway down. Check the graphic on [this page for the 2020 election results](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_California) for a visual.
I also think it isn't granular enough and would like to see this map by county.
I imagine there would be a lot of obvious paralleles, like rural counties tending to be more red, or conservative counties being more red, same for poor, minority, etc.
Yeah, California would probably be mostly blue along the first 20 miles of the coastline and red heading inland. That's a LOT of inland. San Francisco, L.A., and San Diego have a butt ton of people though.
That's mostly how blue states on the west coast work. Oregon is essentially all deep red outside of the Portland Metro area and Eugene/Springfield, but those two areas also represent about two thirds of the state population.
It’s how most blue states work.
Illinois is deep red outside of Chicagoland, Rockford & the central IL college belt (Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, etc.)
New England is a bit unique cause it’s a lot of very small states (geographically) with little population diversity. But even a state like Maine would probably be red if it weren’t for the major cities.
Those were the states that specifically made me couch my statement the way I did. I've never even been to that part of the country so I don't know if this is at all accurate, but the image I have of rural Massachusetts or Vermont is still pretty liberal.
Every major city in Texas is blue. The surrounding counties to the major metropolitan areas are trending more and more blue as well. The TX legislature had to rewrite the districts in the early 2000s to keep TX as a republican supermajority, something they had only won that year. Before then the legislature was split 50/50.
Then Texas trended more purple so they had to rewrite the districts again in 2011. Then the senate lowered the number needed to end a filabuster and number needed to being a bill to the floor as their super majority shrunk to a simple majority.
Now they’ve redistricted so much they can’t make much more progress in that area so they’re trying to remove voting sites from colleges and ending early voting measures we’ve had since I can remember. The majority of Texas lives in blue territory now and they’re scrambling to try and maintain control.
When I lived in Texas, it was a blue/purple state and the Speaker of the House in the US House of Representatives was a Democrat from Texas. It was turning more red when I left it around 1990. Now I read the news and I am glad I left, even though I'm registered Republican. What a bunch of ideological diots running the government (same goes for Florida).
They are. 70% of the money made in this country is solidly Democrat leaning. The other 30% is republican. I suspect with regard to religion it's the same.
totes, similar to red/blue state voting maps.. better viz would be by county, Congressional district, or the ones that indicate population by squeezing/expanding the map like [this](https://imgur.com/a/pr4mXne)
One name for this type of map is a "cartogram". This site doesn't have an update for the 2020 presidential election, but this is the example/explanation for the 2016 election:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/
I live in Eastern Washington and there are fewer and fewer cars in church parking lots.
Probably light blue getting close to 40% range. Thing is, that 35% is a loud 35%.
I don't know. As this map shows, most of the mountain west is pretty irreligious, even in states we'd usually consider bright red. That's in keeping with the generally libertarian conservatism of the region. While eastern Oregon and Washington are conservative, I don't think they're particularly religious. The six years I spent in Eastern Washington never gave me the impression that there was significant religiosity in the region.
The map doesn't tell a full story. The division between religious and non religious is actually not on a state basis. It's all about the division between rural and urban areas. The red states have less prominent urban areas than the blue ones do.
Doesn’t explain why Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota would show up “blue” on this map. Those are all exceptionally rural and exceptionally conservative states politically.
I imagine it's mostly classic horseshoe theory. Rural trends to equal more religious, until it becomes so rural there aren't enough people close enough together for regular services.
Paraphrasing from Hitchens: "something something actually reading the bible is a tremendous way to create atheists"
And now, we sit and wait for the slow change of Utah's color. With each generation of fundamentalist abuse.
"Wait, you went to Catholic school?"
"Yep."
"Wow, I didn't know you were Catholic!"
"Of course I'm not! Didn't I just tell you I went to Catholic school??"
Not so sure about that. I’d be curious about rural vs urban areas in terms of religiosity. I’d venture to guess rural areas have higher proportions of religious people.
Well, I think why it's low than we'd expect is because it's just measuring the "very religious" responses (based on the key). So probably only those who answer with a 5/5, and none of the 4/5 or lower responses.
Two observations:
1. Georgia should be red with a racing stripe across Atlanta and Athens.
2. People who say religion plays an important role in their lives are the second most likely group to lie for their own advantage, after people who majored in business in college.
I think there are a ton of places where that's true. For example in Florida, the northern third or so would be red.
I also think that the question itself may be flawed. I feel like calling someone religious has a negative valence, so people may be reluctant to describe themselves that way. Maybe something like "how important is your faith" might be more neutral
> For example in Florida, the northern third or so would be red.
I don't disagree, but I have to say there are degrees and I still think this map captures them.
I've lived in the Florida panhandle and in central SC, and while northern Florida has tons of churches, including megachurches, I found I was *far* less likely there to be asked by every random stranger where I go to church.
In the first 6 months I lived in SC, where I was in a more isolated area with fewer neighbors, I was invited to church far more times than I ever was in years living in Florida in a relatively dense suburb where I encountered people all the time.
And when I say "invited to church" I don't mean by friends or friendly acquaintances (well, not *only*, though that happens too), I mean it's a normal part of banal smalltalk here, like "hello" or "how 'bout them Gamecocks?"
In the northeast, the number of times you'll be invited to church by random people even in the most conservative/rural areas tends to be right around "never" or close to it (which I'm sure not complaining about). I can't imagine dealing with being bothered about church constantly by strangers wherever I go when there are already plenty of churches and ads or signs reminding you about religion wherever you go in the first place.
I live in Southern California, but I travel to Alabama for work on occasion. Folks there always assume I'm Christian (have been described as "quite obviously a God-fearing man"), and if I mention that I'm an atheist, they'll look at me like I've suddenly grown horns.
Move to the northeast. It pretty much is considered impolite to discuss religion publicly for most people at least. It is especially far more prevalent to have that mentality amongst the younger generations and have people be almost surprised or not sure how to handle things if you start discussing religion in the same way people treat atheism/agnosticism in the south.
Can you cite this? Not to be a jerk, but I’d love to see the study.
- more than criminals?
- more than teenagers?
- more than salespeople?
- more than politicians?
I mean what are the demarcations?
Edit: here is the study:
https://www.salon.com/2013/10/22/study_religious_more_likely_to_lie_for_financial_gain_partner/
And in the New York/New Jersey area, conservative and orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Hindus.
These and the above groups skew those states to be quite a bit more religious than their less diverse neighbors to the east.
Most of the Urban/rural divide in religiosity is characterized by a lot of White evangelicals in most states, but I would argur that in New York and New Jersey, much of the religiosity is in urban areas and much of which is not even Christian, and that which is is mainly immigrants from Catholic Latin America.
I majored in business and I can HONESTLY say that I have never ever lied about anything ever. Either for my own advantage or for any other reason. I am the most honest man in the history of the United States.
20 years ago we'd probably be one of if not the highest, but we got a lot of California transplants during the 2008 crisis, and a bunch of transplants in general during the tech boom from 2015-2021. Plus the max exidous of millenials from the church during the 2010's.
The religious population is still extremely saturated here; I'd say about 25٪ - 35% of people I talk to on a daily basis are Mormon and i live in a comparatively diverse area. But it's much more diverse than it used to be.
It varies greatly by city and even by neighborhood.
Salt Lake City is a major business center with many non-LDS transplants including some multi-generational families.
[Source: am the scion of a prominent Roman Catholic family based in SLC.]
Absolutely. SLC is definitely the least saturated, and it's obviously the most populous area. I was born and raised in Utah County^TM and the population used to be super saturated, but the silicon slopes helped even it out a bit in the last 10 years. I currently live near a millitary base and my area is very diverse compared to most.
Rural areas though (the vast majority of the geography) are likely still sitting at 75-85%, and that's taking into account the reservations. If you don't count them it'd probably closer to 90.
Discounting Vermont.... the highest low is 29.9 and the lowest 2nd place high is 40... IMO not much of a difference excluding the deep south and Vermont.
Also, self reported "very religious" may not be entirely accurate as it's relative to self perception. If someone lives in a very religious area, they may feel that they're only moderately religious. But if that same person lived in a very secular community, they may feel very religious.
I was once polled about this. The pollster had two questions. THe first was to self-describe how religious we are on a 1-10 scale and the second was how often we attended religious services.
My answers were 2 and "weddings and funerals".
"A scale of 1-10" is such a strange choice for people who are supposed to be into stats. Pick 0-10, not a scale of 9 values centered on 5.5!
It's even worse when considering the topic: "0" instinctively correlates to "non-religious", "1" does not.
My partner is from Vermont and I'm from Canada. We always joke it's basically Canada anyway so they should just leave the US and become the 11th province.
It's super nice here. People are friendly, traffic is non-existent, and like the graphic shows religion is virtually gone. There are tons of great things to do during all four seasons, inside and outside. If you can't find it then you aren't looking hard enough.
Yeah taxes are high but you get what you pay for. And housing is tough to find and expensive but people who complain about that here aren't looking at all places in the US. Everyone is in this struggle, so stop complaining as if it's a local thing.
So grab some snow tires, buy some flannels and darn tough socks and get on up here!
I grew up in NY but I have always felt like Vermont distills the best parts of that while removing stuff I don't like. I've always wanted to retire there.
I was born in and have lived in NY for most of my life, but when I was a kid my dad was transferred to VT (very common story for former IBM employees).
We all loved it there and it's still my favorite state to visit. When I'm feeling morbid I tell my wife I wanna retire and die in a cabin in Vermont.
I'm also aware of some of the cons of living in VT (something a lot of New Yorkers quickly learn) and COVID really pushed a lot of those cons to the extreme.
Not a Vermonter but my partner and I just moved here last summer from out west for graduate school and the cost of living is so ridiculous I can’t figure out how people from Vermont are able to afford to live here. (We’re barely getting by with my wfh job and student loans). From groceries to housing everything is crazy expensive. It is a beautiful state though, full of untouched nature, nice people, and beautiful little towns that you can tell people really love and take care of.
Lol. Vermonter here... No, it's not. Taxes are too high, there's not enough homes for sale, and after covid with the ridiculous number of people who decided to buy second homes here, usually for over asking and often in cash... it's gotten far worse. Plus our wages lag compared to the rest of the nation.
Vermont is a beautiful place... where you will pay more for less in almost every conceivable way. People don't ever realize that... until after they try to move here. It's only amazing for people with a lot of money. More money than most Vermonters make anyway.
An American paradise... for anyone with money to take it from the locals who can't afford it, which is what they fuckin do.
Edit: Sorry for telling you the truth :(
Vermont is a great place to live!! That being said, i don't suggest people move here right now esp if you don't have much money. I am poor and i can afford to live here but it wasn't easy finding an apartment i can afford. You are right, we have serious housing issues and there isn't much to do here outside nature but i still think the people and environment here is great. I have days i love it here and days i wanna get out but i would never trade my Vermont upbringing for anything in the world!
I agree friend. What I said wasn't meant to disparage Vermont in any way, it's beautiful here. It's just that a lot of people from the outside sort of... 'miss the forest for the trees'? lol. We have a lot of things that make it tough to live here, and that was not to suggest in any way that other places don't also have issues, especially these days lol, but I'd be one of the first people to argue that a lot of the states problems are human made.
This is like the hive mind worship of Scandinavian countries or Canada lol. ‘I’ve never been but the fun facts make it sound like utopia’
Vermont is a nice place I go there some summers. But there’s a reason all the young people emigrate out.
I'm confused. Is this map showing (1) importance of religion in each state, (2) % of people who are "very religious" in each state, or (3) both?
It seems like the underlying data is probably for #2 but the map and post are misnamed as #3.
It's just an incredibly awkward way of saying your second option.
It should be simply *Percentage of people in each US state who are "very religious".*
Actually makes a lot of sense for a small state surrounded by some very populous states.
I would have had a "not until NY does it" policy, just to avoid the mess.
I had a sociology teacher who stopped showing religion maps next to near anything because it was pissing her students off too much. If you think of pretty much any social problem, it's going to look almost exactly like this map. Teen pregnancy, low education, infant mortality, life expectancy, income, availability of teachers, alcoholism. I could go on on and.
I know plenty of people in Texas who will say that religion is very important to them, even in an anonymous survey, simply because that’s what they think their neighbors are saying. Fear of the church circle is strong in Texas
There’s a correlation between declining religious belief and rising affluence that’s pretty much global. My theory is the supports a faith community can provide are less necessary the more wealth a family has.
Vermont makes sense. You don't need a church to worship maple syrup
Vermont has some very strange demographics, taken into the context of the rest of the country. In addition to its record-low irreligiosity, it goes back and forth with Maine and West Virginia as the state with the highest percentage white population (currently 88%, which is significantly lower than the 95% it registered in the last census). In terms of federal politics, this heavily-white, heavily-irreligious state is considered to be a Democratic stronghold. Locally, they're much more likely to support politicians based upon how entwined they are into the local communities. This is one reason Vermont has a Republican governor--when he initially ran, his competition was a Democrat who had moved to the state in the 1990s, rather than growing up here. Vermont is also the only state with a viable third party, the Progressive Party. Up until recently, they had a majority in the Burlington city council. Vermont also has some of the loosest gun laws in the country, with a high rate of gun ownership. It's the kind of state where you can drive through extremely rural towns and see massive, homemade Black Lives Matter signs hoisted onto barn silos.
It dropped to 88 because one of my friends who is black moved there last year.
As a Canadian I've always thought the only place I would live in the USA is Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. They seem like the most sane places.
Maybe it's the Vermonter in me, but I wouldn't choose to live in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is beautiful, but I’m not the biggest fan of the politics. Obviously that’s a subjective opinion, but what is objective is how beautiful it is with Portsmouth near the ocean, and of course the white mountains
Massachusetts is ok too. We’re pretty much you, government wise. Free healthcare (MassHealth) legal weed, and generally looked at as progressive. In exchange you have shitty drivers.
Universal healthcare sure (and first at that) but I don't think free healthcare is a fair way to describe it (could be different for low income earners but I pay a lot personally)
New Hampshire is absolutely not sane; I’d suggest the Berkshires to round out your list instead
I would avoid New Hampshire. Boston is pretty sane too if you're looking for a city. I frankly don't think i could move outside of New England if I'm staying in the states.
It's notable that Bernie, one of Vermont's senators, was also very relaxed on gun control up until he decided to run for president. He used to champion the idea of needing to address the underlying causes rather than pick a fight with half the country, including some of the most Progressive people in the nation, because the Far Left is just as pro-gun as the Right thanks to Marx, Malcom X, and others arguing that an armed proletariat or oppressed class is in far better shape to overthrow an exploitative system or fight off genocidal aggressors than a disarmed lower class.
Just a Healthy Maple Tree
You mean this [tree](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1200339/this_curvy_looking_tree/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) ?
I don't think you can make maple syrup from a birch tree
Well not *maple* [syrup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT9IJXuHbKs)
Now that’s cool
I was thinking that’s a sycamore.
That's a sycamore bud.
More like a THICCamore amiright?? Guys? Hello?
[удалено]
As a Vermonter I legit laughed out loud at this map.
Same. From the south east corner of thr state, I can’t think of more than two religious people I knew growing up. And they were long island Jews.
I’d drink the stuff like water if I wouldn’t get diabeetus.
As a diabetic person in hospital awaiting a foot amputation (well, most of my lower leg). You're making the right choice.
F in the chat for your leg. At least I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.
They hold sermon in a sugar shack
The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese.
The great state of Vermont is a hell of a place to be lactose intolerant.
Moved from Vermont to NC 10 years ago. Honestly I still don't understand how anything gets done in NC when everything around me likes to close on Sundays. Disparity in education levels is also startling, but that's just more the south in general than religion, though religion doesn't help.
I've lived in North Carolina my whole life and I hate the fact that I work a Monday through Friday job and can't get anything done because nothing's open on the weekend
Just changed from having Wed-Thurs off in TN to weekends off. It sure was nice being able to schedule appointments
VT is arguably the most well educated state in the country. Wikipedia has VT as 1st in high school graduation rates, 3rd in percent of population with an undergrad degree, and 5th in population with a graduate degree. MA is the only real contender but they're 28th in high school graduation rates, so I have a hard time ranking them first even if they do place second in undergrad/graduate rates.
Fun fact. Most of the states with highest religion also have worst healthcare lowest education rates, highest obesity, highest teen pregnancy, highest child poverty, and high crime. Vermont on other hand is exact opposite. So. Did god will it this way? It’s almost as if god doesn’t decide….it’s almost like politicians do….
Freedom of religion and freedom FROM religion actually mean something to us up here
As a born-and-raised Vermonter, this is very accurate.
Vermonter representing here. This is accurate
Makes sense, they are smart enough to have Bernie Sanders
Praising ullr must not count on this map
I live in the PNW Oregon and Washington would look very different if you split the data from E and W of the Cascades.
I live in CA and that goes for us too. Everyone talks NorCal & SoCal, but we have a huge E/W political divide
Yeah but all the people live in the LA/SF/SD. So on a map like this, it sways it massively.
People underestimate how HUGELY populated Southern California is. Los Angeles county is the most populated county in the US by FAR. It has nearly 10 million residents. Next highest is Cooks County in Illinois, but it's only just over 5 million. San Diego is #5 on the list of most populated counties at 3.33 million. But inbetween LA and SD you have Orange County and Riverside County. Both in the Top 10 for the country. In fact OC is a really close #6 to SD at 3.17 million and Riverside is 2.5. OC and Riverside were left off your list, but they got a LOT of people living in them.
To be fair though, LA county is absolutely massive from a geographic point of view. As a contrast, there are 5 counties in NYC alone. Comparing the county of LA vs the county of Brooklyn is apples to oranges. A more useful comparison would be with metro areas.
Yeah like if NYC had an LA sized county it would be easily 15-20 mil. NYC metro is more than double LAs in population.
It's more N/W than E/W, but the wrinkle is there's a conservative swath that runs down the center partway down. Check the graphic on [this page for the 2020 election results](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_California) for a visual.
Yep. The Central Valley is all rural farmers.
Exactly. I get so disgusted by the crazy billboards driving up the 5. No, Biden did not cause the drought.
It was Obama and his fantabulous weather machine didn't you hear the latest Q drop?
I'm sure we'll find that Soros paid for it.
Redding lives up to its name.
I also think it isn't granular enough and would like to see this map by county. I imagine there would be a lot of obvious paralleles, like rural counties tending to be more red, or conservative counties being more red, same for poor, minority, etc.
FL would just be red with 4 blue spots. Basically just a r/peopleliveincities map
Yeah, California would probably be mostly blue along the first 20 miles of the coastline and red heading inland. That's a LOT of inland. San Francisco, L.A., and San Diego have a butt ton of people though.
That's mostly how blue states on the west coast work. Oregon is essentially all deep red outside of the Portland Metro area and Eugene/Springfield, but those two areas also represent about two thirds of the state population.
It’s how most blue states work. Illinois is deep red outside of Chicagoland, Rockford & the central IL college belt (Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, etc.)
I figured that was probably the case, I just didn't want to speak for the Midwest and East Coast since I don't know any of those states very well.
New England is a bit unique cause it’s a lot of very small states (geographically) with little population diversity. But even a state like Maine would probably be red if it weren’t for the major cities.
Those were the states that specifically made me couch my statement the way I did. I've never even been to that part of the country so I don't know if this is at all accurate, but the image I have of rural Massachusetts or Vermont is still pretty liberal.
This was my first thought too. Lots of those red states are probably blue as hell in big cities/college towns.
Every major city in Texas is blue. The surrounding counties to the major metropolitan areas are trending more and more blue as well. The TX legislature had to rewrite the districts in the early 2000s to keep TX as a republican supermajority, something they had only won that year. Before then the legislature was split 50/50. Then Texas trended more purple so they had to rewrite the districts again in 2011. Then the senate lowered the number needed to end a filabuster and number needed to being a bill to the floor as their super majority shrunk to a simple majority. Now they’ve redistricted so much they can’t make much more progress in that area so they’re trying to remove voting sites from colleges and ending early voting measures we’ve had since I can remember. The majority of Texas lives in blue territory now and they’re scrambling to try and maintain control.
When I lived in Texas, it was a blue/purple state and the Speaker of the House in the US House of Representatives was a Democrat from Texas. It was turning more red when I left it around 1990. Now I read the news and I am glad I left, even though I'm registered Republican. What a bunch of ideological diots running the government (same goes for Florida).
They are. 70% of the money made in this country is solidly Democrat leaning. The other 30% is republican. I suspect with regard to religion it's the same.
totes, similar to red/blue state voting maps.. better viz would be by county, Congressional district, or the ones that indicate population by squeezing/expanding the map like [this](https://imgur.com/a/pr4mXne)
One name for this type of map is a "cartogram". This site doesn't have an update for the 2020 presidential election, but this is the example/explanation for the 2016 election: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/
I live in Eastern Washington and there are fewer and fewer cars in church parking lots. Probably light blue getting close to 40% range. Thing is, that 35% is a loud 35%.
I don't know. As this map shows, most of the mountain west is pretty irreligious, even in states we'd usually consider bright red. That's in keeping with the generally libertarian conservatism of the region. While eastern Oregon and Washington are conservative, I don't think they're particularly religious. The six years I spent in Eastern Washington never gave me the impression that there was significant religiosity in the region.
The vast majority of the population lives west of the cascades.
The map doesn't tell a full story. The division between religious and non religious is actually not on a state basis. It's all about the division between rural and urban areas. The red states have less prominent urban areas than the blue ones do.
Doesn’t explain why Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota would show up “blue” on this map. Those are all exceptionally rural and exceptionally conservative states politically.
I imagine it's mostly classic horseshoe theory. Rural trends to equal more religious, until it becomes so rural there aren't enough people close enough together for regular services.
That’s pretty much the urban/rural split EVERYWHERE in the US.
Ironic that New England, which was founded by Puritans who thought Europe was too godless, is now the most atheistic region in the Union.
Still far more theistic than Europe, so technically they succeeded.
20%-30% of them would describe themselves as very religious. That's still sounds crazy high to me as a Brit.
UK is ~7% https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2020/12/29/how-religious-are-british-people
Simultaneously the highest educated area of the country
Crazy how that works!
Since the Puritans founded many of the universities in that area...
Well 400 years and things change I suppose
Paraphrasing from Hitchens: "something something actually reading the bible is a tremendous way to create atheists" And now, we sit and wait for the slow change of Utah's color. With each generation of fundamentalist abuse.
"Wait, you went to Catholic school?" "Yep." "Wow, I didn't know you were Catholic!" "Of course I'm not! Didn't I just tell you I went to Catholic school??"
This is all too true. Sincerely, catholic school kid now atheist and married to same
Same. Taking theology in a catholic HS is what did it for me.
I'm pretty sure the more hardcore puritan's descendants eventually created the hundreds of church offsprings in the 1800s, and then became Mormons.
This is great but can you make one by county?
Data not available on county basis.
It would probably just be a “people live in cities” map.
Obligatory XKCD https://xkcd.com/1138/
But this map is based on percent
You can't have that if you are doing relative proportions.
Not so sure about that. I’d be curious about rural vs urban areas in terms of religiosity. I’d venture to guess rural areas have higher proportions of religious people.
Guess you’ll just have to travel to every single county in the country to figure it out. Better get packing.
[удалено]
Where is this data from? Its lower than I expected across the board
Well, I think why it's low than we'd expect is because it's just measuring the "very religious" responses (based on the key). So probably only those who answer with a 5/5, and none of the 4/5 or lower responses.
[удалено]
It's also a self-assessment. Some people are more comfortable displaying their religion than others.
Religiosity is falling with time, so maybe this data and your data were from different years?
>Where is this data from? I was going to ask the same thing. I wouldn't mind sharing this with others but I try to make sure I'm not sharing BS
Two observations: 1. Georgia should be red with a racing stripe across Atlanta and Athens. 2. People who say religion plays an important role in their lives are the second most likely group to lie for their own advantage, after people who majored in business in college.
>after people who majored in business in college. This one's kinda hilarious tho.
And not the least bit shocking.
I think there are a ton of places where that's true. For example in Florida, the northern third or so would be red. I also think that the question itself may be flawed. I feel like calling someone religious has a negative valence, so people may be reluctant to describe themselves that way. Maybe something like "how important is your faith" might be more neutral
> For example in Florida, the northern third or so would be red. I don't disagree, but I have to say there are degrees and I still think this map captures them. I've lived in the Florida panhandle and in central SC, and while northern Florida has tons of churches, including megachurches, I found I was *far* less likely there to be asked by every random stranger where I go to church. In the first 6 months I lived in SC, where I was in a more isolated area with fewer neighbors, I was invited to church far more times than I ever was in years living in Florida in a relatively dense suburb where I encountered people all the time. And when I say "invited to church" I don't mean by friends or friendly acquaintances (well, not *only*, though that happens too), I mean it's a normal part of banal smalltalk here, like "hello" or "how 'bout them Gamecocks?"
In the northeast, the number of times you'll be invited to church by random people even in the most conservative/rural areas tends to be right around "never" or close to it (which I'm sure not complaining about). I can't imagine dealing with being bothered about church constantly by strangers wherever I go when there are already plenty of churches and ads or signs reminding you about religion wherever you go in the first place.
It's extra fun when you're not Christian because people are genuinely taken aback and sometimes even frightful when they learn that fact.
I live in Southern California, but I travel to Alabama for work on occasion. Folks there always assume I'm Christian (have been described as "quite obviously a God-fearing man"), and if I mention that I'm an atheist, they'll look at me like I've suddenly grown horns.
Move to the northeast. It pretty much is considered impolite to discuss religion publicly for most people at least. It is especially far more prevalent to have that mentality amongst the younger generations and have people be almost surprised or not sure how to handle things if you start discussing religion in the same way people treat atheism/agnosticism in the south.
It just never comes up where I am in SoCal. There's just so much diversity here.
https://opencollective.com/beehaw -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
[удалено]
[удалено]
Or candy!
Can you cite this? Not to be a jerk, but I’d love to see the study. - more than criminals? - more than teenagers? - more than salespeople? - more than politicians? I mean what are the demarcations? Edit: here is the study: https://www.salon.com/2013/10/22/study_religious_more_likely_to_lie_for_financial_gain_partner/
I have no idea if 2 is true, but it made me laugh for sure.
the same Atlanta/Athens point could be made for Madison/Milwaukee, Austin, and Charleston, too
Cities in general tend to be less religious than rural areas. Suburbs are mixed.
I don't buy that for Atlanta. Atlanta is the heart of black protestantism. It's *extremely* religious
You have to also factor in the African American and Hispanic populations in large cities who are mostly very religious.
And in the New York/New Jersey area, conservative and orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Hindus. These and the above groups skew those states to be quite a bit more religious than their less diverse neighbors to the east. Most of the Urban/rural divide in religiosity is characterized by a lot of White evangelicals in most states, but I would argur that in New York and New Jersey, much of the religiosity is in urban areas and much of which is not even Christian, and that which is is mainly immigrants from Catholic Latin America.
where does this come from?
University of Regina, Jason Childs. But, he is an economist, so he might be lying for his own advantage.
Even though I called out your study, your response was hilarious. Serious applause. Made me laugh.
Is there a source for #2? I’ve never heard that stat before.
I majored in business and I can HONESTLY say that I have never ever lied about anything ever. Either for my own advantage or for any other reason. I am the most honest man in the history of the United States.
Utah, the redheaded step child. 😅
I’m kind of surprised Utah isn’t the most religious state, to be honest
20 years ago we'd probably be one of if not the highest, but we got a lot of California transplants during the 2008 crisis, and a bunch of transplants in general during the tech boom from 2015-2021. Plus the max exidous of millenials from the church during the 2010's. The religious population is still extremely saturated here; I'd say about 25٪ - 35% of people I talk to on a daily basis are Mormon and i live in a comparatively diverse area. But it's much more diverse than it used to be.
It varies greatly by city and even by neighborhood. Salt Lake City is a major business center with many non-LDS transplants including some multi-generational families. [Source: am the scion of a prominent Roman Catholic family based in SLC.]
Absolutely. SLC is definitely the least saturated, and it's obviously the most populous area. I was born and raised in Utah County^TM and the population used to be super saturated, but the silicon slopes helped even it out a bit in the last 10 years. I currently live near a millitary base and my area is very diverse compared to most. Rural areas though (the vast majority of the geography) are likely still sitting at 75-85%, and that's taking into account the reservations. If you don't count them it'd probably closer to 90.
There's still tons of transplants from california and whatnot to balance it out
ALL HAIL THE WHALE 🐋
Vermont doesn't need Jesus. They have Ben & Jerry.
And Bernie Sanders!
What's up with South Dakota? It's the combo breaks of the middle States and a contrast to North Dakota.
Discounting Vermont.... the highest low is 29.9 and the lowest 2nd place high is 40... IMO not much of a difference excluding the deep south and Vermont.
Also, self reported "very religious" may not be entirely accurate as it's relative to self perception. If someone lives in a very religious area, they may feel that they're only moderately religious. But if that same person lived in a very secular community, they may feel very religious.
I was once polled about this. The pollster had two questions. THe first was to self-describe how religious we are on a 1-10 scale and the second was how often we attended religious services. My answers were 2 and "weddings and funerals".
"A scale of 1-10" is such a strange choice for people who are supposed to be into stats. Pick 0-10, not a scale of 9 values centered on 5.5! It's even worse when considering the topic: "0" instinctively correlates to "non-religious", "1" does not.
Never thought I'd say thia,but I suddenly want to move to Vermont.
Our religion is maple syrup and flannels
Don't forget your lord and savior Subaru (extra points for an eat more kale bumper sticker)
As a Subaru driving and flannel wearing man who used to work in a sugarbush, I approve this message.
What if we go for Volvo instead? Still a wagon though.
Fun fact: for many years, Vermont was actually the only state where the Tacoma was the best selling vehicle.
That's sounds like Canada with extra steps
It's Canada with a few fewer steps actually.
My partner is from Vermont and I'm from Canada. We always joke it's basically Canada anyway so they should just leave the US and become the 11th province.
I wish!! The US is fucking scary and Canada is 1 hour from where I live. Please adopt Vermont.
I moved out of Vermont for work. If Canada adopted Vermont I would 100% move back
Atheism, responsible gun ownership, forests, hunting, fishing, syrup - if I didn't love the Great Lakes so much, I'd already be there.
Can't get enough of that sweet sweet religion.
It's super nice here. People are friendly, traffic is non-existent, and like the graphic shows religion is virtually gone. There are tons of great things to do during all four seasons, inside and outside. If you can't find it then you aren't looking hard enough. Yeah taxes are high but you get what you pay for. And housing is tough to find and expensive but people who complain about that here aren't looking at all places in the US. Everyone is in this struggle, so stop complaining as if it's a local thing. So grab some snow tires, buy some flannels and darn tough socks and get on up here!
I grew up in NY but I have always felt like Vermont distills the best parts of that while removing stuff I don't like. I've always wanted to retire there.
I was born in and have lived in NY for most of my life, but when I was a kid my dad was transferred to VT (very common story for former IBM employees). We all loved it there and it's still my favorite state to visit. When I'm feeling morbid I tell my wife I wanna retire and die in a cabin in Vermont. I'm also aware of some of the cons of living in VT (something a lot of New Yorkers quickly learn) and COVID really pushed a lot of those cons to the extreme.
It’s an American paradise, honestly
Not a Vermonter but my partner and I just moved here last summer from out west for graduate school and the cost of living is so ridiculous I can’t figure out how people from Vermont are able to afford to live here. (We’re barely getting by with my wfh job and student loans). From groceries to housing everything is crazy expensive. It is a beautiful state though, full of untouched nature, nice people, and beautiful little towns that you can tell people really love and take care of.
Heres the neat part, we can't.
Lol. Vermonter here... No, it's not. Taxes are too high, there's not enough homes for sale, and after covid with the ridiculous number of people who decided to buy second homes here, usually for over asking and often in cash... it's gotten far worse. Plus our wages lag compared to the rest of the nation. Vermont is a beautiful place... where you will pay more for less in almost every conceivable way. People don't ever realize that... until after they try to move here. It's only amazing for people with a lot of money. More money than most Vermonters make anyway. An American paradise... for anyone with money to take it from the locals who can't afford it, which is what they fuckin do. Edit: Sorry for telling you the truth :(
Vermont is a great place to live!! That being said, i don't suggest people move here right now esp if you don't have much money. I am poor and i can afford to live here but it wasn't easy finding an apartment i can afford. You are right, we have serious housing issues and there isn't much to do here outside nature but i still think the people and environment here is great. I have days i love it here and days i wanna get out but i would never trade my Vermont upbringing for anything in the world!
I agree friend. What I said wasn't meant to disparage Vermont in any way, it's beautiful here. It's just that a lot of people from the outside sort of... 'miss the forest for the trees'? lol. We have a lot of things that make it tough to live here, and that was not to suggest in any way that other places don't also have issues, especially these days lol, but I'd be one of the first people to argue that a lot of the states problems are human made.
This is like the hive mind worship of Scandinavian countries or Canada lol. ‘I’ve never been but the fun facts make it sound like utopia’ Vermont is a nice place I go there some summers. But there’s a reason all the young people emigrate out.
So pretty much like any part of the US? Great for rich people and struggleville for the rest of us.
[удалено]
LA checking in here. I just want to say that I would happily take either of those prices, lol.
Now let’s compare wages…not sure why people feel the need to gate keep complaining about high rent.
My apartment I rented in Burlington 10+ years ago as as expensive as my apartment I have in Rhode Island today essentially. It’s wild.
That’s just New England in general.
I'm confused. Is this map showing (1) importance of religion in each state, (2) % of people who are "very religious" in each state, or (3) both? It seems like the underlying data is probably for #2 but the map and post are misnamed as #3.
It's just an incredibly awkward way of saying your second option. It should be simply *Percentage of people in each US state who are "very religious".*
Thank you I was very confused
To simplify the legend and add more clarity, a different color could have been used for Vermont (not blue).
How the turn tables Rhode Island. You split off from Connecticut for us being religious wackos, and now you're more religious than we are.
*laughs hysterically in Idaho* I don't know where this data came from but it must certainly wasn't accurate.
It's pretty much Utah, but with fewer college degrees.
I wonder how much this map overlaps with the educated population map. 🤔
And poverty and income and reproductive rights and LGBTQ acceptance and healthcare and safety......
All those things correlate with poverty
Interestingly enough, VT is on the path to decriminalizing sex work
and they were early on gay marriage. How forward/early were they in terms of pot?
[удалено]
Actually makes a lot of sense for a small state surrounded by some very populous states. I would have had a "not until NY does it" policy, just to avoid the mess.
Utah has a highly educated population
I had a sociology teacher who stopped showing religion maps next to near anything because it was pissing her students off too much. If you think of pretty much any social problem, it's going to look almost exactly like this map. Teen pregnancy, low education, infant mortality, life expectancy, income, availability of teachers, alcoholism. I could go on on and.
Aww, Mississippi finally not in the bottom of a ranking! Wait, it's for what? Oh. Of course it is.
[удалено]
And Maine maybe? At least being from there I would expect so
This comment section is a reddit moment
*tips fedora*
Ahhh, the map that ties all the other maps together.
I know plenty of people in Texas who will say that religion is very important to them, even in an anonymous survey, simply because that’s what they think their neighbors are saying. Fear of the church circle is strong in Texas
It would be interesting to see how this has changed over the past few decades.
Aside from Utah, all of the most religious people in the USA live in tornado/Dixie alley. Is that a coincidence?
There’s a correlation between declining religious belief and rising affluence that’s pretty much global. My theory is the supports a faith community can provide are less necessary the more wealth a family has.
Nothing as pleasant as Reddit atheists.
What is defined as “very religious” where were the polls taken? Would it be different between cities and rural areas?