Southern Baptist Churches & Baptisms and the 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas

Churches

Fifty percent of SBC churches were in the nation's metropolitan areas, compared to 80 percent of the population.
Half of the churches in metros were in the 50 largest metros:25 percent of all SBC churches are in these largest metropolitan areas.
From 1990 to 2000, Southern Baptists had a net gain of 3,448 churches in the largest 50 metros.
Growth of churches occurred at a rate of 22 percent in these areas compared to population growth of 15 percent.
The Philadelphia area grew from 53 churches in 1990 to 146 in 2000.

Population per Church

The ratio of population to churches varies greatly by region.
In large Southern metros, there are 6,700 persons per SBC church.
In large metros outside the South, this ratio is almost 33,000 per SBC church.
Grand Rapids (218,000), Minneapolis-St. Paul (165,000), and New York (138,000) are examples of metropolitan areas with huge numbers of people per SBC church.
The population per church ratio improved in the 50 largest metros combined: A result of the number of churches growing faster than the population from 1990 to 2000.
Large metros in the South and West that experienced rapid population growth have had difficulty matching that growth in the number of churches.

Baptisms

The largest 50 metropolitan areas, home to 58 percent of the nation's population, reported 37 percent of baptisms (152,000) in 2000.
The 21 large metros in the South reported 115,000 baptisms, compared to 37,000 for the 29 large metros outside the South.

Baptisms/1000

Calculating baptisms per 1,000 population provides a comparison of the evangelistic penetration of Southern Baptists in an area.
Nationally, this ratio was 1.47 baptisms per 1,000 population in 2000.
Three of the large Southern metros, Jacksonville, Nashville, and Oklahoma City, reported more than 4 baptisms per 1,000 population.
Several areas outside the South, led by Grand Rapids, New York, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, reported fewer than 0.1 baptisms per 1,000 population.

Download full Research Report, America's 50 Largest Metros 1990-2000

This Research Report may also be of interest, America's Mid Level Metropolitan Areas

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