August 23, 2005
(Ventura, CA) – Godless Hollywood? Lost Angeles? Bible Belt?
Texas: God’s Country? These and many other stereotypes that blend faith
and geography are put to the test thanks to statistics in a new report
from The Barna Group, a research and media development organization
located in southern California. Based on a nationally representative
base of interviews with more than 24,000 adults, the report examines 28
faith factors among people in the 86 largest metropolitan areas and 27
most populous states. The results confirm some of the existing
faith-and-geography perceptions while discrediting others, and show
that the mobility of America’s population is producing significant
changes related to location and faith.
Evangelicals In America
Seven percent of the adult population of the U.S. is
evangelical. Those 15 million adults are not equally distributed across
the country, but the report shows that their distribution forms a
different pattern than many political and demographic analysts have
suggested.
For instance, the market with the highest percentage of
evangelicals is Little Rock, Arkansas, where better than one out of
every five adults (22%) met the survey criteria for “evangelical
Christian.” (That is not a self-defined category; it is based upon
people’s responses to nine survey questions about their religious
beliefs. See the Research Methodology section of this report for the
description of those factors.) Of the 86 largest metropolitan areas in
the nation, those with the lowest proportion of evangelicals were Salt
Lake City, Utah; Hartford, Connecticut; and Providence, Rhode Island.
However, when determining which metropolitan area has the
greatest number of evangelical adults, the outcome will shock many
people: Los Angeles. The city that produces the media often criticized
or boycotted by evangelicals is also home to nearly one million of
those deeply devout Christians. In fact, there are more evangelical
adults in the Los Angeles market than there are in the New York,
Chicago and Boston metropolitan areas – combined!
The Barna Group’s analysis showed that although the evangelicals living
in the ten most populous markets account for only 6% of the adults in
those markets, that group represents one out of every four evangelicals
(24%) in the United States.
The report also explores the faith of residents in the 27
most
populous states. The state with the highest percentage of adults who
are evangelical is Alabama (at 13%, nearly double the national
average). Its polar opposite – i.e., the state with the lowest
incidence of evangelicals – is Connecticut.
Taking into account each state’s aggregate adult population,
the area with the greatest number of evangelicals is California, which
is home to nearly two million of them. Connecticut retains the bragging
rights to having the fewest adults who are evangelical, with just
26,000 of them in a state of more than two and a half million adults.
The Presence of Born Again
Christians
Nationally, four out of every ten adults is a born again
Christian. (This measure is based on people’s beliefs, not a
self-definition. The two questions that qualify people are described in
this report’s Research Methodology section.) But there is a wide range
of incidence levels related to the location of born again adults. For
instance, the market with the largest percentage of its adults
classified as born again – by a large margin – is Jackson, Mississippi,
where 83% of adults meet the criteria. There are ten markets in which
at least six out of every ten adults are born again – and each of them
is located in the South.
There were also six out of the 86 markets studied that had
fewer than 25% of the adult public satisfying the born again standard.
The lowest of those were Boston (21%), Providence (21%) and New York
(22%). Of the six lowest-ranked markets, five are in the Northeast.
The market with the greatest number of individuals who are
born
again was, once again, the City of Angels (Los Angeles) with 3.6
million born again believers in the metro area. Surprisingly, there are
20 metropolitan areas that have one million or more adults who are born
again.
The statewide data showed that Alabama earned the top
ranking
for the percentage of residents who are born again: 67%. Overall, nine
states had 50% or more of the adult population who were born again.
Among the 27 most populous states, the one that emerged with the lowest
percentage who are born again, by far, was Massachusetts (17%). The
four states with the lowest percentages of adult Christians were all in
the Northeast.
The Most – and Least –
Christian Markets
One of the measures developed by George Barna for the Faith
By Market
report estimates how Christian-oriented a market’s population is, based
upon a combination of faith factors. The top market was Jackson,
Mississippi, whose indexed score was 46% higher than the national norm.
Close behind were Little Rock and Birmingham. Barna noted that in
relation to this composite rating, the 16 highest-rated markets were
all located in the South.
The markets whose indexed score was at the bottom of the
list
were Boston and Providence, whose scores were 35% below the national
norm.
In a similar manner, the state whose population generated
the highest Christian-orientation score was Alabama.
Other Highlights From the Report
The Faith By Market report
explores 40 different
factors among the adults located in each of the markets and states
studied. Those factors include a dozen religious beliefs, ten religious
practices, various religious commitments and affiliations, and a dozen
demographic attributes.
Among the many intriguing insights from the report are the
following:
Just
3 of the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas have a born again
majority. However, 15 of the 27 mid-sized markets (adult population of
a half-million up to one million) have a born again majority.
The
market with the highest percentage of adults who volunteer at a church
during an average week is Salt Lake City. The market with the lowest
rate of church volunteerism is Buffalo.
Sunday school attendance among adults is most common in
Salt Lake City, and least common in Portland, Maine.
Involvement
in an adult small group is most prolific in Shreveport, Louisiana. The
three markets with the lowest rates of small group participation are
Albany (NY), Boston and Providence.
The market with the highest percentage of adults who
consider themselves to be Baptist is Shreveport. The market with the
highest percentage that claims allegiance to the Catholic church is
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The connection to the Methodist church is
highest in Wichita, Kansas. Affiliation with a Lutheran church was
greatest in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
People are most likely to attend a large church in
Houston. They are most likely to attend a church of less than 100
adults in Lexington, KY.
Adults are most likely to claim they have a
responsibility to share their religious beliefs with other people if
they live in Birmingham, Alabama. That perspective is least common in
Providence and Green Bay.
The metro area in which adults are most likely to
believe that Satan is a symbol of evil but not a living presence is the
Brownsville-McAllen-Harlingen market in Texas.
People are most likely to believe that they can earn their
salvation if they live in Salt Lake City.
The highest percentage of adults who believe that Jesus
Christ sinned during his life on earth is in Des Moines, Iowa.
Believing
that God is “the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe who
still rules it today” is most common in Tulsa. It is least predominant
in Boston and San Francisco.
The state with the highest percentage of its
residents attending large churches is Arizona. Such behavior is least
common in Missouri.
The states with the lowest proportion of born again
residents having shared their faith in Christ with a non-believer in
the past year were Massachusetts and Tennessee. Personal evangelism
efforts were most common in Alabama and Louisiana.
The largest percentage of adults who are “notional
Christians” – that is, those who consider themselves to be Christian
but are not born again – are found in Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
One out of every six residents of Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Washington are atheist or agnostic – nearly double the
national average. Atheists and agnostics are hardest to locate in
Louisiana and Missouri.
