Spirituality can mean many different things to Americans. For instance, about a quarter of Americans say that, to them, being spiritual is about connections, including being connected to God, nature or other people. One-in-ten say being spiritual means understanding themselves.
We also know that for many people there is no difference been spirituality and religion.
Due to the wide variety of definitions people attach to spirituality – and since there is no single way to measure it – Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study asked Americans multiple questions about their spiritual beliefs, practices, experiences and identities.
The study shows that many of the country’s most spiritual states, as well as many of its most religious ones, are in the South. For instance, about half of adults who live in Mississippi (54%), Louisiana (51%), Kentucky (51%), Arkansas (50%), South Carolina (50%) and Oklahoma (50%) say they feel “a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being” at least once a week.
But spirituality is also widespread outside the South. For example, roughly eight-in-ten adults or more in every state believe that people have souls or spirits in addition to their physical bodies. And roughly seven-in-ten or more in every state think there is “something spiritual beyond the natural world.”
When comparing states on any survey question, it’s important to keep in mind that some differences may not be statistically significant, due to the survey’s margins of error.
To see how your state stacks up against other states on measures of spirituality, jump to the following sections:
The questions used for this analysis are available here. Details about the survey’s methodology, including the sample sizes and margins of error for each state, are available here.
