LOS ANGELES – Perhaps this comes as no surprise to the more cynical among us, but according to a recent survey, America’s so-called Bible Belt is a hotspot for homemade porn.

The Bible Belt is an informal region of the U.S. loosely corresponding to the Old South (see map below). Socially conservative evangelical Protestantism composes a significant part of the culture, and Christian church attendance is higher than the national average. The states generally considered to compose the Bible Belt include all or parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

According to adult entertainment studio Homegrown Video, nearly one third (29.6 percent) of the homemade porn submitted between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2013, was produced by amateur filmmakers in the Bible Belt.

The company’s statistics also indicated the majority of the videos — 56.9 percent — were submitted by women.

For 30 years, Homegrown’s primary business model has been to buy homemade porn directly from the participants and then distribute the homemade sex tapes to the studio’s legion of fans. In perusing the submissions the company received during the last half of 2013, bean counters discovered the following state-by-state breakdown:

20.6 percent of submissions came from California (42.9 percent from females)
11.8 percent from Pennsylvania (50 percent from females)
10.8 percent came from Florida (63.7 percent from females)
6.9 percent came from Texas (57.1 percent from females)
5.9 percent came from Arizona (83.3 percent from females)
4.9 percent came from Colorado (80 percent from females)
3.9 percent came from Washington (75 percent from females)
3.9 percent came from North Carolina (75 percent from females)
2 percent came from Connecticut (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Georgia (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Oregon (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Michigan (100 percent from females)
2 percent came from Nevada (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Kansas (50 percent from females)
1 percent came from Massachusetts (0 from females)
1 percent came from Indiana (100 percent from females)
1 percent came from Kentucky (100 percent from females)
1 percent came from Louisiana (0 from females)
1 percent came from New York (0 from females)
1 percent came from West Virginia (100 from females)

International demographics from the same study showed the following results:

2.9 percent came from the Czech Republic (33.3 percent from females)
2 percent came from Ontario, Canada (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from British Columbia, Canada (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Romania (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Israel (50 percent from females)
2 percent came from Guatemala (50 percent from females)

The results of the six-month study echo recent reports by religious media outlet Christian Post’s 2013 end-of-year report putting forth national demographics for the “seven deadly sins.” The article “How Sinful is Your State?” suggests lust is a particular failing among Bible Belt residents, who also tend to be the most active in speaking out about the evils of pornography.

“I think the important thing to take from these results is, regardless of region, religion, sex, or political views, people have an innate curiosity about sex,” said Homegrown Video owner Farrell Timlake. “Often, they also have a desire to expand their sexual boundaries and share the experience.

“This goes hand in hand with Homegrown’s mission,” he continued. “We believe sexuality and sexual desire are the ‘sixth sense,’ a form of expression allowing people to see, hear and feel the deepest emotions words are unable to fully describe — love and happiness, the vitality of life. The suppression of sexuality is the equivalent of a blindfold or gag, closing eyes and lips to love, preventing the expression of happiness.”