Map of American Protestant denominations

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is pretty cool, and I think especially some of our Evangelical R&P regulars might have fun with it.

New England Congregationalism really sticks out here, as do the Upper Midwest/Great Plains Lutheran belt and the traditional Pentecostal/Holiness strength on the West Coast. Methodism as the generic Protestantism of choice for middle-of-the-road Northern (and some Southern! Congrats, Dubya) non-Baptists also stands out.

You can also really tell that Episcopalianism doesn't have much of a geographic base, as such, in this country. Traditionally it was the church of choice for upper- and upper-middle-class non-"ethnics", who are all over the place even today but aren't really a majority anywhere. (Note that the Episcopalian counties that are on this map are in places like Southwestern Connecticut and the ski-resort parts of the Mountain West.)

Any other observations?

[John Dule]

But seriously, what's up with all the Southern Baptists in Northern California?

[DC Al Fine]

But seriously, what's up with all the Southern Baptists in Northern California?

In no particular order

a) I'm pretty sure a lot of Okies wound up in California

b) There's a decent number of Hispanic Southern Baptists

c) The name "Southern Baptist Convention" is dated and probably a bit of a misnomer at this point. The SBC is all over the place now. Heck, there used to be a sizeable denomination called the "Canadian Southern Baptist Conference", before they (mercifully) changed their name.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The colonial history of South Carolina is responsible for the ELCA being the leading denomination of Newberry County.

[DC Al Fine]

Nathan, do you have a breakdown of the "Other"  counties? I can pick out the CRCNA/RCA in Dutch areas and the National Baptist Convention in areas with a large black population, but the rest of Others are a mystery to me.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Is W Michigan something Dutch?

[RINO Tom]

This is so interesting and reminds me of how the religious culture in the Midwest really was a throwback to earlier decades in America growing up, at least in my experience (obviously Catholics aren't on this map, but the Mainline vs. Evangelical divide is).  Mainline Protestantism was the norm, and then there were your Catholic friends.  Evangelical Protestantism was mostly a non-entity; I think I knew about two or three people who were Evangelicals.  Here is an anecdotal list of some friends' religions that I could recall growing up to give a snapshot:

14 - CHRISTIAN
8 - Mainline Protestant (3 Lutheran, 2 Methodist, 2 Episcopalian, 1 Presbyterian)
5 - Catholic
1 - Evangelical (Non-Denominational)
2 - JEWISH
2 - UNAFFILIATED

I know Iowa City/Johnson County as a whole is much more Catholic than that, so I am inclined to believe the west side (where we grew up) is much more Protestant.

Surprised Lutheranism isn't higher in Central Illinois, given the huge German populations there and that all of my family from there goes to very active Lutheran churches and seem to have a lot of Lutherans in their communities.

[Associate Justice PiT]

But seriously, what's up with all the Southern Baptists in Northern California?

In no particular order

a) I'm pretty sure a lot of Okies wound up in California

b) There's a decent number of Hispanic Southern Baptists

c) The name "Southern Baptist Convention" is dated and probably a bit of a misnomer at this point. The SBC is all over the place now. Heck, there used to be a sizeable denomination called the "Canadian Southern Baptist Conference", before they (mercifully) changed their name.

     The Okies are more of a SoCal thing. Northern California is going to be weird on a map like this, because the predominant church in the Bay Area and surrounding areas has long been Catholicism. The area was not heavily settled by any traditionally Protestant populations, so Mainline adherence is lower than in most of the country. The point about Hispanic Baptists is an accurate one that many people don't realize, and would help edge the SBC over other denominations in the area.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I don't think I pointed this out in the Discord server, but one thing that frustrates me most about this map is Cook County being labeled as "Other". What is this mystery denomination of one of the most populous counties in the country?

[RINO Tom]

I don't think I pointed this out in the Discord server, but one thing that frustrates me most about this map is Cook County being labeled as "Other". What is this mystery denomination of one of the most populous counties in the country?

A subset of historically Black Protestant counted separately?

[Green Line]

I don't think I pointed this out in the Discord server, but one thing that frustrates me most about this map is Cook County being labeled as "Other". What is this mystery denomination of one of the most populous counties in the country?

A subset of historically Black Protestant counted separately?

I thought that too, since Detroit and Cleveland counties are also colored "Other".  Blacks make up 25% of Cook.  Combine that with the fact that certainly 30 or 40%+ of the county is Catholic, at least, and it seems possible.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I don't think I pointed this out in the Discord server, but one thing that frustrates me most about this map is Cook County being labeled as "Other". What is this mystery denomination of one of the most populous counties in the country?

A subset of historically Black Protestant counted separately?

I thought that too, since Detroit and Cleveland counties are also colored "Other".  Blacks make up 25% of Cook.  Combine that with the fact that certainly 30 or 40%+ of the county is Catholic, at least, and it seems possible.

Seems fair, actually. And if Atlanta proper were its own county, then I'd guess it would be colored that way too. Yet with Fulton County we get a Methodist island in a sea of Baptists.

[DC Al Fine]

I looked it up in ARDA. The largest Protestant group in Cook County is the National Baptist Convention. I.e. An historically black denomination as you guys suspected.

[H. Ross Peron]

I don't think I pointed this out in the Discord server, but one thing that frustrates me most about this map is Cook County being labeled as "Other". What is this mystery denomination of one of the most populous counties in the country?

Which Discord server is this one?

The distribution of the American Baptist Convention is rather interesting, with some areas of strength in West Virginia as well as Maine. Providence County having ABC as the largest Protestant denomination is a nice touch and reminder of Rhode Island's Baptist heritage.

Speaking of West Virginia, I'm surprised only one county there has the Southern Baptists as the largest denomination. I wonder if this is a result of the Civil War or something else.

[RINO Tom]

Slightly OT: Is there an obvious geographical pattern to German Protestants vs. German Catholics in the United States, a pattern I would also assume largely mirrors German immigrants from Prussia and other northern German states vs. Bavaria, Baden and other southern German states?

It seems German Catholics are quite abundant in, say, Wisconsin, but I feel like the German American community in both places where I grew up (Peoria, IL and Iowa City, IA) were overwhelmingly Lutheran, with the local Catholic populations being mostly Irish.

[Alcibiades]

What is the ‘other’ in Northern Jersey and NYC. I would imagine some might be historically black churches, but others, most likely in NJ, must be something else. Dutch Reformed hangover?

[Alcibiades]

This is so interesting and reminds me of how the religious culture in the Midwest really was a throwback to earlier decades in America growing up, at least in my experience (obviously Catholics aren't on this map, but the Mainline vs. Evangelical divide is).  Mainline Protestantism was the norm, and then there were your Catholic friends.  Evangelical Protestantism was mostly a non-entity; I think I knew about two or three people who were Evangelicals.  Here is an anecdotal list of some friends' religions that I could recall growing up to give a snapshot:

14 - CHRISTIAN
8 - Mainline Protestant (3 Lutheran, 2 Methodist, 2 Episcopalian, 1 Presbyterian)
5 - Catholic
1 - Evangelical (Non-Denominational)
2 - JEWISH
2 - UNAFFILIATED

I know Iowa City/Johnson County as a whole is much more Catholic than that, so I am inclined to believe the west side (where we grew up) is much more Protestant.

Surprised Lutheranism isn't higher in Central Illinois, given the huge German populations there and that all of my family from there goes to very active Lutheran churches and seem to have a lot of Lutherans in their communities.

Would you say that most of these people were actually committed members of their churches? Because with me growing up (obviously in far more secular Britain), it was a case of counting friends who were religious on two hands. (3 Church of England, 4 Catholics (all 3 out of 4 of whom lost their religion during adolescence to varying degrees), 1 liberal Jew, 1 Orthodox Jew,  1 Muslim, 1 Sikh).

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The presence of Episcopalian counties in Western MA/Southern VT, illustrates a New York transplant effect. They would likely be UCC/Congregationalist otherwise.

[H. Ross Peron]

The presence of Episcopalian counties in Western MA/Southern VT, illustrates a New York transplant effect. They would likely be UCC/Congregationalist otherwise.

Otoh, Eastern Massachusetts has some Episcopalian counties as well. Something of a WASP elite vs old stock Yankee divide?

[RINO Tom]

This is so interesting and reminds me of how the religious culture in the Midwest really was a throwback to earlier decades in America growing up, at least in my experience (obviously Catholics aren't on this map, but the Mainline vs. Evangelical divide is).  Mainline Protestantism was the norm, and then there were your Catholic friends.  Evangelical Protestantism was mostly a non-entity; I think I knew about two or three people who were Evangelicals.  Here is an anecdotal list of some friends' religions that I could recall growing up to give a snapshot:

14 - CHRISTIAN
8 - Mainline Protestant (3 Lutheran, 2 Methodist, 2 Episcopalian, 1 Presbyterian)
5 - Catholic
1 - Evangelical (Non-Denominational)
2 - JEWISH
2 - UNAFFILIATED

I know Iowa City/Johnson County as a whole is much more Catholic than that, so I am inclined to believe the west side (where we grew up) is much more Protestant.

Surprised Lutheranism isn't higher in Central Illinois, given the huge German populations there and that all of my family from there goes to very active Lutheran churches and seem to have a lot of Lutherans in their communities.

Would you say that most of these people were actually committed members of their churches? Because with me growing up (obviously in far more secular Britain), it was a case of counting friends who were religious on two hands. (3 Church of England, 4 Catholics (all 3 out of 4 of whom lost their religion during adolescence to varying degrees), 1 liberal Jew, 1 Orthodox Jew,  1 Muslim, 1 Sikh).

I would say with my religion specifically (ELCA Lutheran), a LOT of people I know no longer go to church or are active followers of the religion but would at the same time absolutely identify as "Lutheran" rather than "Unaffiliated," and I still see most of them on Christmas Eve, lol.  That might have to do with the "don't need the Church to be religious" aspect of Lutheranism I have always felt.  Both Episcopalians, one of the Methodists and two of the Catholics would probably all identify as "Non-Religious" now, though.

[Donerail]

You can also really tell that Episcopalianism doesn't have much of a geographic base, as such, in this country. Traditionally it was the church of choice for upper- and upper-middle-class non-"ethnics", who are all over the place even today but aren't really a majority anywhere. (Note that the Episcopalian counties that are on this map are in places like Southwestern Connecticut and the ski-resort parts of the Mountain West.)

But not exclusively — the other part of the country that sticks out as heavily ECUSA is Pine Ridge & Rosebud. (There are eleven Episcopal congregations on the Rosebud reservation and only three in Sioux Falls.) Strange alliance of the richest 1% and the poorest 1%.

[TDAS04]

West Virginia is not very Southern Baptist; more American Baptist and Methodist, but I shouldn't be surprised.

Also interesting that Montana is considerably more Lutheran than the rest of the Rockies.

[RINO Tom]

West Virginia is not very Southern Baptist; more American Baptist and Methodist, but I shouldn't be surprised.

Also interesting that Montana is considerably more Lutheran than the rest of the Rockies.

It looks like Montana is a lot more German and Scandinavian than any other state in the region:

https://statisticalatlas.com/United-States/Ancestry

GERMAN ANCESTRY
Montana: 26.0%
Wyoming: 23.6%
Idaho: 17.5%
Utah: 11.2%
Colorado: 20.3%

SCANDINAVIAN ANCESTRY
Montana: 12.3%
Idaho: 6.1%
Utah: 6.1%
Wyoming: 6.1%
Colorado: 4.5%

As I mentioned above, I am not knowledgeable about the geographic patterns of German Protestants (i.e., usually Lutherans) vs. German Catholics, but according to Wikipedia (which cites One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society, pg. 120), 51% of German Americans are Protestant, and only 26% are Catholic, so I think German and especially Scandinavian ancestry would be good predictors of high Lutheran populations in the vast majority of states.

[RINO Tom]

Also, has anyone ever come across a good Catholic vs. Mainline vs. Evangelical county map?  Initially, I thought I could just make one using this map and a "Largest Christian denomination" map, but since Catholicism is so centralized and big, it proved harder than I thought...

[Indy Texas]

Where is this data coming from?

Another interesting thing would be to group them by denominational traditions (ex. Lutherans of all varieties, Baptists of all varieties).