Periodically, Barna zooms in from nationally representative data on the Church to focus specifically on U.S. cities, equipping pastors to lead better in their context with reporting on topics like habits of generosity, post-Christian environments, relationship status trends and more.
With other measures of church attendance and affiliation in flux, especially as leaders and congregants emerge from COVID-era church life, the infographics below focus on two key measures of personal faith practice—Bible-reading and prayer.
You can get more city-specific benchmarks and insights through Barna Cities, a new initiative recently launched by Barna Group and Gloo with the goal of strengthening local churches.
Southern Cities Are Top-Ranking for Bible-ReadingAt a national level, aggregated Barna data (collected between 2005 and 2021) show that about three in 10 U.S. adults reads the Bible at least once a week. City data taken from Barna’s annual tracking research reveals that the top-ranked city for Bible-reading—Monroe, LA—roughly doubles the national percentage of participation, with 64 percent of the city’s residents saying they read the Bible at least weekly. Other markets that report regular Bible-reading are in close proximity, with the top five being located in the South.
- Monroe, LA (64%)
- Montgomery, AL (61%)
- Tyler-Longview-Lufkin-Nacogdoche, TX (59%)
- Jackson, MS (58%)*
- Macon, GA (58%)*
