Arkansas is one of the most church-going states
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Thirty-nine percent of Arkansas adults say they never or seldom attend church or religious services, compared to the national average of 49%, per a new analysis of Household Pulse Survey data from Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng.
By the numbers: 13% of Arkansas residents attend services 1-3 times a year, 5% attend 4-11 times per year, and 30% attend 12 or more times.
- The only states where a larger share of adults attend church 12 times or more a year are Utah (38%) and Mississippi (34%).
Zoom out: Vermont (75%), along with New Hampshire and Maine (both 66%) have the highest share of adults who say they never or seldom attend church or religious services.
- Mississippi (32%), Alabama (36%) and Louisiana (37%) have the lowest shares, with Arkansas right behind them.
The big picture: More than three-quarters of Americans say religion's role in public life is shrinking, per a recent Pew Research Center survey — the most since the group first started tracking such sentiment in 2001.
- Many Americans are unhappy about that, with about half of adults telling Pew both that "religion is losing influence and that this is a bad thing."
- About 57% of adults say religion has a positive impact on American life, per Pew.
Friction point: Nearly half of U.S. adults, or 48%, say they feel at least "some" tension between their religious beliefs and mainstream culture, Pew found.
- That's up from 42% in 2020.
Zoom in: A separate Gallup survey published in March found that Latter-day Saints are the only religious group wherein a majority (54%) say they attend services weekly.
- 30% of Protestants say they attend services weekly, compared to 28% of Muslims, 23% of Catholics and 16% of Jews.
Yes, but: Religious-service attendance has been dropping for decades, per Gallup, driven largely by "the increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation — 9% in 2000-2003 versus 21% in 2021-2023."