The Largest Southern Baptist Communities

Miscellaneous Statistics

Southern Baptists as a percentage of state populations. Click here or on map to see a larger version.

Source: Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1990, published by the Glenmary Research Center, P.O. Box 507, Mars Hill, NC 28754. Principle investigator: Church Growth Research Center, Church of the Nazarene, Kansas City, MO. This data source was obtained from the American Religion Data Archive.

But the proportion of Americans who identify themselves as Southern Baptists has declined steadily and significantly over the past ten years, from 10% in 1993 to just 6% in 2001.

These figures represent the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Southern Baptists, according to the aggregate figures from a year's worth of polling by Gallup [http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr010413.asp]:

Year	% of Americans who say they are Southern Baptists
2001	6%
2000	8%
1999	9%
1998	8%
1997	8%
1996	8%
1995	10%
1994	10%
1993	10%
1992	9%

These figures are the results of responses to two questions. The first determined people's general religion: What is your religious preference -- Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish or an Orthodox religion such as the Greek or Russian Orthodox Church?

Then, if the respondent said they were a Protestant, a follow up question was asked: What specific denomination is that?

During the same 10-year period, there was no similar change observed among other Protestant denominations. "Other Baptists" accounted for 10% of Americans in 1992, and were still 10% in 2001. 10% of Americans said they were Methodists in 1992; 9% in 2001. The figures for Presbyterianism fluctuated between 3 and 5% throughout the period, within the margin of error, and without discernible patten of decline or growth. Episcopalians held at 2% essentially throughout the decade. Lutherans were 6 or 7% in all but one of the years. Pentecostals rose from 1 to 3%, with what seemed to be a real growth trend.

The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has approved a new Council on Family Life that will promote families based on traditional Judeo-Christian values. The committee said problems facing families include an all-time high divorce rate, infidelity and promotion of alternative lifestyles. For the next two years, the council on Family Life will work on a strategy to assist "fractured" families and support and "multiply" already existing Southern Baptist programs that promote traditional families. The new plans follow the 1998 adoption of a statement that affirmed heterosexual marriage and stated that wives should "submit . . . graciously" to their husbands. Former council President Tom Elliff, who headed the study committee, said he did not want The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be the only religious group known for its concern about families. "Why shouldn't that be Southern Baptists?" he asked the Executive Committee.

Related External Links

• SBC.net
• Baptist World Alliance
• Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives
• Southern Baptist Convention in Chicago, 2000
• Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: cover story featuring the SBC
• Countern Baptist Convention entities - organizations which are directly funded by the Southern Baptist Convention
• Baptists drop "Baptist" from name of churches
• Southern Baptists wish to drop "Southern" or "Baptist" (or both) from their name
• When the Denominational Center Doesn't Hold: The Southern Baptist Experience - article from Christian Century
• League of the South - promoting Southern culture, defending Southern history
• Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists
• Texas Baptists - Hitherto and Henceforth - by By Herbert Reynolds, Chancellor, Baylor University, delivered at the 1998 Texas Baptists Committed Annual Breakfast (Houston).
• Louisiana Mainstream Baptists
• Statistics relating to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - article by E. L. Bynum published by Tabernacle Baptist Church.
• Way of Life archive of SBC criticism by a conservative Baptist group
• "Triumph of the Southern Baptists" - SBC in the Southern U.S.
• The Battle for Truth in the SBC - Information about the SBC schism from a moderate point of view.
• Any way you count it, fewer Southern Baptists by Cary McMullen.
• Fundamentalist and Southern Baptist exclusivism
• The Need for Reformation In The Southern Baptist Convention: How We Lost Our Way Along the Path - by John Calvin
• Reasons for SBC Decline - results by a poll conducted by the Baptist publication Mainstream Messenger
• Texas Baptists Committed - "TBC stands for the historic purpose and principles originated by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845."
• Why I am No Longer a Southern Baptist - by Terry Mattingly
• Why We Left the Southern Baptist Convention - by Charles Dunn, Bob Jones University
• President Jimmy Carter: Leaving the Southern Baptist Convention
• "So Much for Freedom" - disregard for academic freedom at Southern Baptist seminaries
• The Gospel according to whom? - article in Raleigh News-Observer. Christians criticize SBC use of hate speech.
• "Immersed in Baptists" - by Eric Snider
• When clergy prey, women pray to be heard
• Letter about Southern Baptist clergy - by Dee Miller
• Essay by Raymond Laginess