According to First Liberty Institute, Arkansas ranks first among all 50 states for protecting religious liberty, while New York ranks last.
Arkansas is the best state at protecting religious liberty, according to the 2026 edition of the annual “Religious Liberty in the States” (RLS) report from First Liberty Institute.
First Liberty, which is the largest legal organization in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty, released the annual index ranking religious liberty protections for each of the 50 states.
This year, Arkansas and Tennessee ranked first and second, with scores of 89% and 85%. Both states earned an “excellent” rating, meaning that they scored above 80%, marking the first time any state has crossed that threshold in the RLS.
Conducted by the institute’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy (CRCD), the report focuses on select legal safeguards of religious exercise in laws and constitutions.
The report assigns a percentage score to each state based on 50 legal protections that states have to protect religious liberty within six categories: government, healthcare, economic life, religious life, and family and education. These protections are gathered into 20 “safeguards,” which researchers average to produce each state’s index score.
The RLS also measures
