by Emma Sumlin • 3 minutes
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the 2025 Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) index!
Each year, First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy (CRCD) publishes a nationwide index of domestic religious freedom. It ranks religious liberty protections for each of the 50 states. RLS focuses on select legal safeguards of religious exercise in state laws and constitutions.
On Monday, the CRCD team unveiled the results at a special First Liberty event in Florida alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis. Watch below:
Which States Rank Best…and Worst?
RLS assigns an aggregate percentage score to each state, determined by the number of religious liberty “safeguards” found in state constitutions and laws. The 2025 index evaluates 47 distinct legal protections, which we’ll discuss in more detail in a forthcoming section.
Here are the top 5 states:
For the first time, Florida tops the national ranking followed closely by Montana and Illinois. Florida and Montana have gained momentum through new conscience protections, religious exemptions and updated statutory safeguards.
“Florida holds several #1 rankings, leading the nation in education, economy, and tourism—and now, Florida is #1 in religious liberty,” said Gov. DeSantis. “Religious liberty is critical to the foundation and function of America, and I am proud that Florida excels in protecting this right.”
“Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, Florida passed real laws that protect real people, and now the Sunshine State is the national leader in protecting religious liberty,” said Kelly Shackelford. “It’s time for more states to follow Governor DeSantis’s example and adopt strong religious liberty laws.”
On the flip side, the 5 states with the lowest scores are:
Most states fell within the 25%-50% range, which means every state has significant room for improvement. 38 states are doing less than half of what they can do. As CRCD’s experts explain, most states on average are employing less than half of the safeguards measured to protect religious liberty.
Curious about where your state ranks? Download the Executive Summary for the full ranking of all 50 states.
States with the Most Improvement
Since 2022, Montana showed the most improvement, raising its score by about 31%. Recent legislation protecting the conscience rights of heath-care workers has contributed to Montana’s success as the most improved state over the life of the RLS index.
South Carolina and Florida also showed tremendous progress, increasing their scores by 29% and 17%, respectively.
Idaho is the state with the most improvement since 2024, mainly due to some of the newly measured protections in the categories of health care and family.
What’s New in RLS 2025
For 2025, RLS expanded in scope and value. The foundation, however, remains the same. Our experts continue to use the well-defined methodology and rigorous research standards used throughout the last three years. Here are three ways the index improved from last year.
First, the number of items RLS 2025 covers has increased by more than 60%, from
29 in 2022 to 47 in 2025.
Second, the RLS measures the presence or lack of 20 safeguards in each state—an increase from the original 11 safeguards from 2022. Safeguards are laws or provisions in state constitutions that protect religious freedom. They are categorized into five areas: Government, Health Care, Economic Life, Religious Life, and Family and Education. You can learn more about safeguards here.
Third, since we began our study, North Dakota (2023) West Virginia (2023), Iowa (2024), Utah (2024), and Georgia (2025) have passed Religious Freedom Restoration Acts. RFRAs provide robust legal protection for Americans of all faiths, making them some of the most important laws for the free exercise of religion.
National Impact
Because of RLS, everyday Americans can now access quality and reliable information to help them understand what their states are doing to protect religious liberty. What’s more, the index also provides a resource to state governments and legislatures on what they can do to better protect the free exercise of religion.
RLS had a huge impact in its inaugural year. Several states took action and passed bills—or actively put forward legislation—to add more religious liberty protections, because of the RLS.
The CRCD and First Liberty are proud of the tremendous work done by all the legal experts, researchers and fellows who work diligently to make this data available. RLS is one of our most important efforts. It was tremendously well-received in its first year, and it is our hope that the 2025 edition will continue to yield fruit and impact the national conversation on religious freedom.
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