Rating religious belief by state

The Pew Center has released a study that looks at religious belief by state. Texas ranks #11 nationally. Southern states generally lead the nation. However, Mississippi clearly lead the pack with 82% of residents saying that religion is an important part of everyday life. The next closest set of states is Alabama (74%) and Arkansas (74%). The Pew figure includes several different measures and you can pick your favorite.

Self-reporting of these kinds of issues is always risky given social desirability bias (the desire of survey respondents to express unpopular opinions). However, the data still makes a great place to discuss some issues like political culture.