When it comes to U.S. cities that embrace the Bible, Birmingham tops the list. A newly released ranking from American Bible Society finds Birmingham residents have the highest combined levels of regular Bible reading and expressed belief in the Bible’s accuracy. Another Alabama city ranking high on the list of America’s Most Bible-Minded Cities was Huntsville, coming in at No. 12.
The news was not quite so positive for some American cities. Topping the list of America’s least Bible-minded cities is Providence, R.I./New Bedford, Mass., metropolitan area for the third consecutive year.
American Bible Society’s Bible-Minded Cities survey, conducted by Barna Group, uses Nielsen media market rankings as a proxy for city size.
The third annual study found that while the Bible Belt and smaller cities continue to perform strongly in Bible friendliness, East Coast cities and large cities continue to bring up the rear. While ranked No. 1 in Bible mindedness, Birmingham is the 44th largest media market in America. Just one of the top 10 Bible-minded cities ranks among the top 25 cities by media market. Knoxville — which ranked No. 1 in the 2013 Bible-Minded Cities’ list — dropped out of the top 10 in 2015, coming in at No. 11. This year the largest city in America, New York City, entered the list’s bottom 10 for the first time at No. 91.
To be considered Bible minded, respondents must state that they had read the Bible in the past seven days and that they believe strongly in the accuracy of the Bible. Nationally only 27 percent of the population was considered Bible minded.
The 2014 rankings from the study show many differences from usage statistics for American Bible Society’s Bible search engine, Bibles.org. Louisville, Ky., registered the largest number of searches on Bibles.org while Syracuse, N.Y., registered the fewest searches of any of the top 100 markets.
“Online rankings consider only one data point — Bible search behavior — while American Bible Society’s Bible-Minded Cities survey examines both behavior and attitudes about the Bible to harvest a more authentic survey of each city’s population. This provides a more three dimensional view of a city’s Bible mindedness,” said Andrew Hood, managing director of communications at American Bible Society.
The top 10 most Bible-minded cities are (previous year’s ranking): 1. Birmingham (2) 2. Chattanooga, Tenn. (1) 3. Tri-Cities, Tenn. (n/a) 4. Roanoke/Lynchburg, Va. (3) 5. Shreveport, La. (5) 6. Springfield, Mo. (4) 7. Jackson, Miss. (9) 8. Charlotte, N.C. (6) 9. Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C./Asheville, N.C. (7) 10. Little Rock, Ark. (8)
The 10 least Bible-minded cities are (previous year’s ranking): 91. New York City (89) 92. Phoenix, Ariz. (93) 93. Buffalo, N.Y. (95) 94. Hartford/New Haven, Conn. (94) 95. Las Vegas, Nev. (90) 96. Cedar Rapids, Iowa (96) 97. San Francisco, Calif. (97) 98. Boston, Mass. (98) 99. Albany, N.Y. (99) 100. Providence, R.I./New Bedford, Mass. (100)
‘Starting point’
“This study provides us with a great starting point to understand where people are interacting with Scripture and what their views are of the Bible,” Hood said. “We want to help people continue to grow their engagement with the Bible. Ultimately we want people to know that, whether they live in one of the most or least Bible-minded cities, the Bible can speak to their needs and challenges and help them make sense of life.” (American Bible Society)
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