Least Reached Metro Areas in the U.S.
In my last few posts, I have been drawing our attentions to the recently released data regarding the 2010 U. S. Congregational Membership Report. If you are interested in catching up, see my posts HERE and HERE.Previously, I pointed out the least evangelical counties in the United States. Doug Black later created a visual showing these counties on a map HERE. Now, I want to note what the report shared regarding our urban contexts.You may find the data in my table below at The ARDA site HERE. Also, the researchers' definition of "evangelical" may be found HERE and their definition of "Adherents" and "Percent" is as follows:"Congregational 'adherents' include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services. 'Percent' is the percentage of the total population that belongs to that denomination." (Source)Do I have concerns with the researchers' definitions? Yes. But, their research is the most comprehensive and best available to date.I have listed the 20 metro areas that are under 5% evangelical. Yes, such places do exist in the United States. Provo-Orem, UT continues to remain as the least reached (as compared to the 2000 research).Would you and your church prayerfully consider sending missionary teams into these metro areas to plant churches? If you are looking for a place to begin, I would urge you to consider one of these least reached urban areas below.
| METRO AREA |
ADHERENTS |
PERCENT |
| Provo-Orem, UT |
2,540 |
0.5 |
| Logan, UT-ID |
1,746 |
1.4 |
| St. George, UT |
2,345 |
1.7 |
| Pittsfield, MA |
2,817 |
2.2 |
| Kingston, NY |
4,104 |
2.3 |
| Barnstable Town, MA |
5,281 |
2.5 |
| Salt Lake City, UT |
29,498 |
2.6 |
| Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA |
45,007 |
2.8 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH |
146,838 |
3.2 |
| Norwich-New London, CT |
9,320 |
3.4 |
| Ogden-Clearfield, UT |
18,689 |
3.4 |
| Glens Falls, NY |
4,502 |
3.5 |
| Utica-Rome, NY |
10,580 |
3.5 |
| Springfield, MA |
24,645 |
3.6 |
| New Haven-Milford, CT |
33,484 |
3.9 |
| Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME |
20,227 |
3.9 |
| New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA |
750,407 |
4 |
| Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY |
27,236 |
4.1 |
| Burlington-South Burlington, VT |
9,512 |
4.5 |
| Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA |
25,351 |
4.5 |