Religion, Well-Being, and the State of the States

Many posts have discussed federalism.

The State of the States Report of the State of the Nation Project has valuable data on states.

 

The State of the Nation report ranked every state across 31 measures like infant mortality, murder rate, voter turnout, etc.

Lower ranks are better.

I plotted that against the share of each state that is highly religious.

The most religious states had the worst ranks. pic.twitter.com/YdgQAvWzYT

— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) June 7, 2026