The research group Barna has just released their list of the most “post-Christian” cities in America, and one region dominates the top 10. In fact, the top eight cities on the list are all in the northeast/New England portion of the United States.
The Springfield-Holyoke area of Massachusetts; the Portland-Auburn region of Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; Burlington, Vermont and Boston make up the top five.
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo in California and Washington’s Seattle-Tacoma were the only non-northeast cities in the top 10.
Infographic: Here are this year’s top 10 post-Christian cities in America. Read more in our 2019 report here: https://t.co/HDdb1GaMg3 pic.twitter.com/2qdNOApOlM
— Barna Group (@BarnaGroup) June 6, 2019
In order to determine how “post-Christian” a city is, Barna used their “FaithView” tool to determine some key metrics like whether people in the city had read the Bible in the last week (87% of people in Springfield-Holyoke had not), attended church in the last week (65% of Springfield-Holyoke had not), ever made a commitment to Jesus (that’s a no for 60% of Springfield-Holyoke residents), prayed to God in the last week (a no from 47% of people in Springfield-Holyoke) and disagreed that faith is important in their lives (41% of Springfield-Holyoke residents).
Interestingly, when asked if they “do not believe in God,” the top city on the list (you guessed it, Springfield-Holyoke) only had 11 percent of those asked confirm they were atheist.
Infographic: See where your city ranks in America's post-Christian cities. https://t.co/HDdb1GaMg3 pic.twitter.com/lZ1nEaH9EA
— Barna Group (@BarnaGroup) June 6, 2019