Evangelicals More Likely to Be Found in Fastest-Growing U.S. Cities Than Largest Ones

cityscape city evangelicals — PicJumbo photo | Pexels

By Aaron Earls

Finding an evangelical in one of America’s largest cities might be rare, but they’re more plentiful in the nation’s fastest-growing cities.

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau projections, 10 cities have populations larger than 1 million.

New York City
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Phoenix
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Diego
Dallas
San Jose

Only 11% of the residents of those 10 metro-areas are evangelical Christians, according to the most recent data available from the Association of Religion Data Archive (ARDA).

Texas has the metros with the largest percentage of evangelicals: Dallas (28%), Houston (25%), and San Antonio (17%).

Among the 10 top population centers in the country, New York City (4%), Philadelphia (6%), and San Jose (8%) have the lowest percentage of evangelicals.

In terms of raw numbers from ARDA, Dallas again has the most evangelicals (1,823,392), followed by Houston (1,476,398), Los Angeles (1,160,504), Chicago (924,108), and New York City (777,643).

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released the fastest growing cities in America. Many of which are suburbs surrounding some of the largest cities.

Buckeye, Ariz. (near Phoenix)
New Braunfels, Texas (near San Antonio)
Apex, NC (near Raleigh, NC)
Frisco, Texas (near Dallas)
Meridian, Id. (near Boise, Id.)
McKinney, Texas (near Dallas)
Georgetown, Texas (near Austin, Texas)
Rowlett, Texas (near Dallas)
Cloud, Fl. (near Orlando, Fl.)
Ankey, Iowa (near Des Moines, Iowa)

The ARDA profile of the metro-area containing these cities show a higher percentage of evangelicals.

The fast-growing areas are 20% evangelical, almost twice as much as the largest cities.

The Dallas area—containing Frisco, McKinney, and Rowlett—is 28% evangelical, followed by Raleigh (Apex) at 20% and Orlando (St. Cloud) at 18%.

The metro-areas with the fastest growing cities that are the least evangelical are Des Moines (Ankey) at 12%, Boise (Meridan) at 13%, and Buckeye (Phoenix) at 13%.