Religion Demographics: Percentages of Evangelical Protestants (2010)

 

Click on the map above to enlarge the image!

The map above shows the total percentages of the Evangelical Protestant member counts by county. Upon first glance at this map, it is evident that there is a very distinct geographic pattern to be observed. Most noticeable is the substantially larger percentages of Protestants in the South. Almost every single county has at least 50% of the population as Protestant, of course with a few exceptions. The density of Protestants in this area follows the path of the Cotton Belt very closely. Additionally, there are a few counties to be seen across the midwest with extremely high percentages of Protestants, as well as many counties with very low percentages. It should also be noted that, in counties containing large urban areas or cities, the percentage of the population identifying as Protestants is not too high.

Now to analyze these patterns. The South appears here as a hotspot for Evangelical Protestant populations. The fact that this pattern follows the same geographic mapping of the Cotton Belt, in which the density of African American populations is much larger than in other regions of the country, indicates the strong ties between the African Americans living in the south and their Protestant religion. Though, just as we saw when analyzing the map of the African American population, the size of these counties plays a role in determining how they appear on this map. The counties that appear the most Protestant could also be the ones that are the least populated. Likewise, the scattered counties in the Midwest with high percentages also indicate a low population.

One of the most interesting patterns that I noticed on this map was one that wasn't so obvious at first. In counties containing large cities such as Atlanta, Baton Rouge, and Dallas, the percentage of Protestants is a lot lower, even though these cities in particular are located in the midst of the Protestant swarm in the South. This speaks to these cities' (and in turn, counties') large urban populations, where the number of Protestants is significantly diluted by the large amount of the urban populations that do not identify as Protestant. Since cities are often hubs for diversity, it makes sense that the percentage of Protestants would appear to be lower.