Which States are Losing Christianity



An article on the web was taken from the latest Pew Study of religion includes a color coded. I found it fascinating to quickly glance over areas of the country losing religion. South Dakota is the only state gaining, not losing, religion. 

Probably a professor somewhere is now comparing the small and large loss of religion to other demographic variables. For example, one would predict a state like Rhode Island, which has long been a bastion of secularism, showed only a moderate gain in secularism. Then there is migration from one state to another. One would expect states with little in migration to show small or no increase in secularism. The age of that population will rise instead of fall. Nebraska, North and South Dakota are states that do not attract large numbers from other states and show little decline in religion.  

A lot of young people are moving from California to Texas. Texas has a birth rate higher than many states, a young state in that sense. It had a substantial loss in Christians since the last questionnaire. Who would have thought Texas was slipping out of the Bible Belt.

Surprisingly, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Mississippi show substantial loses in Christianity. I suppose there are high birth rate and young population ages that brought about these loss numbers. 

Whatever the state, the numbers are not encouraging for Christianity. State showing little decline are states with older populations that will be replaced with a new generation which are non-believers. States with younger populations are already slipping away. 

Unless something changes, Christians have only one choice. It is to find a chair and watch their religion float away. 

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