The Northeastern part of the United States, once known as a bulwark of Puritans and other strict Christian sects, now dominates the top 10 list of the most “post-Christian” cities, according to a report by the Barna Group.
For the report, released Wednesday, Barna drew from data based on interviews with 21,378 adults conducted over a 10-year period that concluded in April 2018, with a sampling error of plus or minus 0.7 percentage points.
The cities were listed in geographic area classifications known as Designated Market Areas, a term developed by The Nielsen Company to define a local media market.
Springfield-Holyoke, Massachusetts, was ranked as the most post-Christian city in America, with 66 percent of their surveyed population fitting Barna’s definition for the term.
Springfield-Holyoke was the first of eight Northeastern cities, occupying the top eight slots on the list. Second place went to Portland-Auburn, Maine, at 60 percent post-Christian.
Places three through eight were, in descending order, Providence, Rhode Island-New Bedford, Massachusetts (59 percent), Burlington, Vermont (59 percent), Boston, Massachusetts-Manchester, New Hampshire (58 percent), Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York (56 percent), Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut (56 percent) and Rochester, New York (55 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 most post-Christian cities were two outside of the Northeast: Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo, California, and Seattle-Tacoma, Washington, both at 54 percent.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski
BCNN1 WP 