New Hampshire is now least religious state in US

A recent Gallup poll has revealed that New Hampshire is now the least religious state in the US. The Granite State edges out Vermont by 2 percent, while Mississippi retained its record as the most religious state for eight straight years.

According to Gallup's 2015 state-by-state analysis, only 20 percent of individuals (18 and older) living in New Hampshire say that religion is essential to their lives, and attend church service every week or almost every week. This is the lowest percentage of any state in the US.

Meanwhile, 55 percent of New Hampshire adults told the poll that religion is not central to their lives and that they seldomly or never attend religious services.

Frank Newport, Gallup's Editor-in-Chief said that the organization classified Americans into three religious groups based on their responses to a question measuring religious service attendance and how essential religion is in their daily life. 

Newport explained Gallup's measure of religiosity by saying that 'very religious American' are those who say religion is important to them and joins church services every week or almost every week. 

He also added that nonreligious Americans are those for whom religion is "not important" and who "seldom or never attend religious services".

Moderately religious Americans meet just one of the criteria, either saying religion is important or that they attend services almost every week or more," Newport explained.

The poll's result are based on over 174,000 interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking in 2015. The state-by-state results include more than 480 interviews in every state and more than 1,000 interviews in most states in the US.

On Tuesday, New Hampshire will be in the national spotlight as it will host the first-in-the-nation presidential primaries for both the Republican and Democratic parties.