Monroe, Evansville, Augusta Among the Leading Cities for Weekly Prayer
Currently, Barna data show that the majority of Americans (64%) prays to God at least once every seven days, though this percentage has been dipping since 2012 (which saw a national average of 83%). Keep in mind, prayerful Americans are not only those who practice the Christian faith—people of various religious backgrounds, and even those who don’t adhere to a religion, pray to God. While the national rate of weekly prayer is high, the highest-ranked city—once again, Monroe, LA takes the lead—adds 30 percentage points to that number, with over nine in 10 residents (94%) saying they have prayed to God at least once in the past week. Ninety-one percent of these prayerful residents identify as Christian. Though the majority of the most prayerful cities in the U.S. is located in the South, one city—Evansville, IN—is located in the Midwest.
- Monroe, LA (94%)
- Evansville, IN (93%)
- Augusta, GA (91%)
- Tyler-Longview-Lufkin-Nacogdoche, TX (90%)*
- Montgomery, AL (90%)*
- Florence-Myrtle Beach, FL (90%)*
Southern Cities Are Top-Ranking for Bible-Reading
At a national level, aggregated Barna data (collected between 2005 and 2021) show that about three in 10 U.S. adults reads the Bible at least once a week. City data taken from Barna’s annual tracking research reveals that the top-ranked city for Bible-reading—Monroe, LA—roughly doubles the national percentage of participation, with 64 percent of the city’s residents saying they read the Bible at least weekly. Other markets that report regular Bible-reading are in close proximity, with the top five being located in the South. More from Barna Research