Carrying the Cross · Tools
See the people God has placed around your church: who they are, what they carry, and where they gather.
Include the city and state. We map everywhere you can reach by car in that time, then build the profile from the Census neighborhoods inside it.
Add one ZIP, or several neighboring ZIPs to profile a broader region.
City search uses official city limits. ZIP codes use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas.
Fun facts
County rankings from the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, PRRI's Census of American Religion and the Census Bureau's ACS.
Where evangelicals lead
2,144
of the nation's 3,143 counties count more evangelical adherents than Catholic ones.
Evangelical adherents as a share of residents. Largest county where evangelicals outnumber Catholics: Harris County, TX, 1.21 million to 918,386.
Many faiths, one county
0.886
Montgomery County, MD, is the most religiously diverse county in America. The county average is 0.615.
PRRI diversity index: 1 means every faith group is the same size; 0 means one group is everyone.
Frontiers of secularization
89.8%
of Orange County, VT, residents are on no congregation's rolls, the lowest adherence of any county of 20,000+.
Unclaimed share of residents. Not the same as "no religion": PRRI puts Orange County's unaffiliated adults at 41.7%.
The field in numbers
4.9 million
people in Los Angeles County are on no congregation's rolls, more than in any other county.
Nationwide, 170.2 million Americans (51.4%) are unclaimed by any congregation.
Cross-cultural mission at home
54.5%
of Miami-Dade County, FL, residents were born abroad, the highest share of any county of 20,000+.
Native share is Native American (alone). Los Angeles County is home to the most immigrants: 3.28 million.
Fewest churches per person
2,759
people per congregation in Ocean County, NJ, the thinnest church presence of any county of 20,000+.
Nationwide, 929 people per congregation. Counts only congregations reporting to the Religion Census, so small independent churches and house congregations may be missed.
What about your community?
Build a profile of your ZIP, city or church address and see what it reveals about the mission around you.
Build a profile →Adherents and unclaimed: 2020 U.S. Religion Census (ASARB), counts of people tied to reporting congregations; "unclaimed" means not counted by any of them, not "no religion." Evangelical and Catholic totals follow ARDA's tradition classification. Diversity and unaffiliated shares: 2023 PRRI Census of American Religion (adults). Foreign-born and Native American (alone) shares: ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates, U.S. Census Bureau. Percentage rankings use counties of 20,000 residents or more; Native American share uses 5,000 or more. Congregations per person: 2020 U.S. Religion Census. Puerto Rico not included.
Compared with the United States
Surprises reveal areas of needed ministry. Confirmations reveal areas of focus.
Who they are
Peoples and languages
Each country and language is a people group to learn, love, and partner with.
Work, income and education
Home and stability
Needs and belonging · CDC PLACES
Loneliness, lack of support, food and housing insecurity: model-based estimates of adults from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
Side by side
For your church team
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Surprises
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Gaps
03
Nations
04
Needs
05
Next 90 days
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Faith
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Lifestyles
08
Needs & habits
Sources and method
ACS 5-year estimates are the Census Bureau's most reliable small-area figures. They pool five years of responses, so they describe the recent past, not today. The tool always pulls the newest 5-year release directly from the Census Bureau's API.
ZIP data uses ZCTAs, which approximate USPS ZIP codes.
Church-address profiles find the address with the Census Geocoder (or OpenStreetMap's Photon when it has no match), map the drive-time area with Valhalla routing on OpenStreetMap roads, and pull Census block-group outlines from TIGERweb. A block group counts when its center falls inside the area. Figures come from ACS block groups; foreign-born, language, disability, ancestry and moving detail are estimated from tracts.
Neighborhood Lifestyles is a Carrying the Cross model built on ACS block-group measures. Likely Needs & Habits combines CDC PLACES tract estimates (measured) with Pew Religious Landscape Study rates applied to the local age mix (modeled).
U.S. government surveys don't ask about religion, so the Faith tab uses three sources, each for one job. Practice (Pew, modeled by age): attendance, daily prayer and importance of religion, from national rates by age applied to the local adult age mix. Identity (PRRI, county estimates): the PRRI 2023 Census of American Religion, which pools about 500,000 Ipsos KnowledgePanel and phone interviews from 2014–2023 and models the share of adults in 18 religious groups for every U.S. county (Bayesian small-area estimates). Congregations (Religion Census 2020, county counts): congregations and adherents reported by religious bodies to the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, a study by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.
PRRI and the Religion Census are published by county only. For a ZIP code or city the tool uses the county or counties it sits in; a drive-time area takes a population-weighted blend of the counties it covers. The U.S. identity comparison is the population-weighted average of all 3,142 PRRI county estimates, so it differs a little from PRRI's national survey figures (for example 27% unaffiliated nationally in 2023).
Grammich, C., et al. 2022. 2020 U.S. Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Adherents Study. ASARB. Data downloaded via usreligioncensus.org; tradition classification from the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.theARDA.com).
PRRI. 2024. 2023 PRRI Census of American Religion: County-Level Data on Religious Identity and Diversity. County values from the dataset behind PRRI's interactive county maps (prri.org).
Neighborhood Lifestyles · a Carrying the Cross model
Neighborhood Lifestyles is a Carrying the Cross model that groups Census block groups by age, household type, housing, income, education, density and commuting. It describes neighborhoods, not individual beliefs or preferences.
The largest lifestyles here
Likely Needs & Habits
Modeled figures estimate what's likely given who lives here, using national survey rates. They are not a local survey.
Where to start
Faith · Identity, congregations and practice
Identity · PRRI county estimates
Congregations · Religion Census 2020, share of the total population
Denominations and networks
Compared with the United States
Congregations: data are self-reported by religious bodies to the 2020 U.S. Religion Census and describe 2020. Definitions of adherent vary by body. Several large historically Black denominations did not report adherents, so Black Protestant figures are undercounted. Traditions follow the ARDA classification.
Identity: PRRI 2023 Census of American Religion county estimates, modeled from about 500,000 Ipsos KnowledgePanel and phone interviews (2014–2023). They describe what adults say they are, not membership or attendance, and small counties carry wider error. Practice: Pew Research Center 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study rates by age, applied to the local adult age mix; they reflect age only.
Schools and colleges · NCES
Public school students
Schools are where a community's children spend their days. Who serves the families walking through these doors?