A new study from WalletHub shows that Utah, one of the most religious states in the nation, is the most charitable state in the U.S., with residents there giving the highest share of their income to charity.
The personal finance website released its list of the “Most Charitable States for 2021” recently.
Overall, Utah was ranked as the most charitable state in the U.S. as it was the state with the highest share of its population that donated money and had the highest volunteer rate.
Utah was also identified as the state where residents donated the highest share of their income to charity.
Arkansas and Georgia, two other states where residents donated a higher share of their income to charity, also had higher than average religious attendance rates, 45% and 39%, respectively.
On the other hand, most of the states with the lowest percentage of donated income have much lower rates of weekly religious attendance.
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Alaska, which took four of the bottom five spots, all have weekly church attendance rates lower than 30%, according to the study.
Last year, another study found a relationship between the decline of religious attendance in the U.S. and a drop-off in charitable giving, The author of that report noted that “attending services is correlated with giving to religious organizations” but “also correlated with giving to secular groups.”