How Religious Is Montana?

by Eric Dietrich Montana Free Press

The 2020 religion census identified 1,766 distinct Montana congregations with an estimated 378,000 adherents, equivalent to 35% of the state’s population.

Just how religious is Montana? Given the highly personal nature of faith, there may be few concepts harder to quantify. However, the U.S. Religion Census makes an effort once a decade regardless, tallying the number of congregations associated with different denominations and their self-reported membership county-by-county across the nation.

Notwithstanding the “God’s County” nickname regularly applied to Montana’s landscape by faithful and secular-minded residents alike, the state actually ranks near the bo...