What Is The Religious Composition Of Wyoming?

Chapel of the Transfiguration in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.

The state of Wyoming occupies a mountainous region of western United States. It is the 10th largest state, but a population of 580,000 as at 2017 makes it the least populous in the country. About two-thirds of the state is covered by rocky mountains while the remaining third consists of High Plains. The Arapaho, Crow, Shoshone, and the Lakota are considered the original inhabitants of the state. Wyoming was under the Spanish Empire until 1848 when it was annexed by the United States from the Mexican territory during the Mexican鈥揂merican War.

Population of Wyoming

According to the United States Census Bureau, the state was inhabited by about 580,000 people as at 2017, Between 2010 and 2017, the state witnessed a population increase of 2.8%. The Bureau also determined that the 92.7% of the population was White in which 82.9 was non-Hispanic white. The Alaska Native and American Indians accounted for 2.7%, while African American made up 1% of the population. Approximately 93.39% of the population consider English their first language, 4.47% recognize Spanish, while 0.35% and 0.28% use German and French as their native language respectively.

Religious Demographics of Wyoming

In 2014 the Pew Research Center for Religion and the Public Life conducted a survey to determine the religious composition of the US and each of the fifty states. According to the survey, 66% of the state鈥檚 population practice Christianity, while 4% belong to other religions. Protestant, Catholic, and Mormon are the largest Christian religions practiced in Wyoming.

Not Affiliated

Just like the trend in several states, Wyoming had a large percentage of people (26%) who claimed not to be religiously affiliated compared to the national average of 23%. Vermont had the largest percentage (37%) of religiously unaffiliated people.

Protestant

The state has the highest number of Protestants compared to the other western states, 16% are Mainline Protestants while 26% are Evangelical Protestants, bringing the total number of Protestant Christians in the state to 43%, far above Oregon, Montana, and Colorado.

Catholic

In contrast, the state's Catholic population is lower compared to other western and Southwestern states. These states recorded a Catholic population of between 21 percent to 34 percent while Wyoming registered a lower figure of 14%.

Mormon

Remarkably, Wyoming registered a large percentage of Mormonism at 9 percent. It ranked third in the country below Utah (67.70%) and Idaho (26.42%). So, religiously; Wyoming can be defined as overwhelmingly Christian (66%), and Highly protestant (43%).

Religious Importance

The research further revealed that 49% of the population considered religion very important, 28% believed it somewhat important, while 9% considered religion not important at all. Thirty-eight percent attend church once a week, 28% once or twice in a month, while 20% never attend church. Only 28% of people in Wyoming engage in religious groups and education while a staggering 59% do not. Thirty-six percent claimed to source guidance on right and wrong from religion, 10% from science, and 42% derive it from common sense. Thirty-four percent responded to reading the scriptures at least once a week while 46% never read the religious books.