Articles

Know the Spiritual Context of Your Area

Barna Group is pleased to announce the new 2013 editions of Cities and States. The following is a brief interview with David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, about how these powerful new reports can be put to use for your organization.

Comments Off

Diversity of Faith in Various U.S. Cities

There is little debate that most Americans are faith-oriented people. Yet how does spirituality and religion differ from one city to the next? A Barna Group study of regional and city-level expressions of faith both confirms and rejects many popular stereotypes about faith and religion in America. The findings—drawn from the Markets 2011 and States 2011 reports—are based on nearly 40,000 interviews conducted over the last seven years by Barna Group. Christian Identity The cities (measured in the Barna research as media markets) with the highest proportion of residents who describe themselves as Christian are typically in the South, including:... Read More

Comments Off

Faith in New York Since 9-11

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, millions of Americans flocked to churches and houses of worship. But, for most, the shift in spiritual behavior was short lived. According to tracking research by the Barna Group, within a few months the spiritual lives of the nation’s population were back to pre-attack levels. A new analysis of Barna Group tracking data examines the long-term spiritual profile at one of the epicenters of the attacks—New York City and the surrounding media market. Based on analysis of research conducted over the last 14 years, the study shows that the faith profile... Read More

Comments Off

Survey Methodology

The Research Behind Cities The data reported in this summary are based upon telephone and online interviews with nationwide random samples of 42,855 adults conducted over a seven year period, ending in May 2012. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±0.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All non-institutionalized adults in the 48 contiguous states were eligible to be interviewed and the distribution of respondents in the survey sample corresponds to the geographic dispersion of the U.S. adult population. Some interviews were conducted in Spanish, but the vast majority of the interviews were... Read More

Comments Off

The Most Post-Christian Cities

Post-Christian Metrics: The level of irreligion in America depends on how you measure it. And the vitality of faith in America is much more than simply how people label themselves. Barna Group tracks the following 15 metrics related to faith, which speak to the lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. Read more of Barna Group’s research on the “Nones,” secularization and post-Christian America. Post-Christian = meet at least 60% of the following 15 factors (9 or more factors) Highly Post-Christian = meet at least 80% of the following 15 factors (12 or more factors) 1. do not believe in... Read More

Comments Off

Why Barna: Cities?

Cities matter. The economic well-being of a nation rests largely on the health of its cities. Likewise, the spiritual vitality of the U.S. is deeply connected to the faith of the people living in its largest cities. We are launching Barna: Cities for this reason—to provide better information to leaders about the state of faith in their city. In a lot of ways, it’s more important than ever to understand local trends in light of national patterns. City metrics are crucial. For one thing, faith leaders are facing increasing pressure to provide meaningful contributions to their communities. And as denominationalism... Read More

Comments Off

Bible-Minded Cities

From its place in schools, to the public square, to people’s individual lives, the current and future role of the Bible in U.S. society is an often-debated topic. A new release from Barna Group shows how this debate plays out regionally and takes a look at how 96 of the largest cities in the nation view the Bible. The report ranks the most and least “Bible-minded” cities by looking at how people in those cities view the Bible. The study is based on 42,855 interviews conducted nationwide and the analysis of Bible trends was commissioned by American Bible Society. Individuals... Read More