Internal Trends
The Leavell Center – The Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary provides demographic services and will analyze internal growth trends in your church. Their fee-based service also offers geo-mapping of data with micro-grid mapping based on a user-defined area. They can also map geo-coded data layers from your church-provided database file.
LifeWay Research – LifeWay Research offers information on current trends and statistics in SBC churches. View SBC statistics, previous studies and articles on their website. You can also sign up to receive e-mail updates on church and culture research.
Barna Research Group – Through the years, the Barna team has worked with thousands of churches and faith leaders. You can access some of their best research for ministries and church leaders on the broad trends reshaping spirituality, society and church life.
Community Research
Association of Religion Data Archives – The ARDA is housed in the Social Science Research Institute at Pennsylvania State University. The incredible tools found here can pinpoint congregations and display demographic data on interactive maps. View religious affiliation data and other demographic information in the growing ARDA collection.
Docent Research Group – Docent Research Group partners with pastors to provide research assistance. The group assists with both sermon and sociological research, consultations, curriculum development and more. Services include:
- Demographic research to help plan for a new campus launch or church plant
- Sermon series preparation and planning
- Position papers to articulate beliefs or develop ministry strategies
- Custom curriculum for small groups and Christian education programs
- Custom research and more
Mission Insite – MissionInsite offers a flexible web-based information system with comprehensive socioeconomic and lifestyle data and an interactive mapping platform. Order the ExecutiveInsite report to gain a greater understanding of your community. The zip code-defined report features:
- 16 pages that showcase a community through the lens of 12 essential insights
- Data sets that include current year updates, often integrating 5-year projections and 10-year forecasts
- StoryView and ThemeView, based upon 10 demographic indicators, which include population and households, age, education and career status, and community diversity
- Experian MOSAIC lifestyle types represented in a community
- Charitable giving practices from the Simmons Market Research Group
- Religious program or ministry preferences from the Quadrennium Project National Religious Survey of American Beliefs, Preferences and Practices
U.S. Census Bureau – U.S. government census data is available online and offers a searchable zip code-based database for the entire country. Data can be mapped and many tables, charts and maps can be pasted into popular word-processing and presentation programs for reporting purposes.
City-Data.com – City-Data has collected and analyzed data from numerous sources to create interesting profiles of all U.S. cities.
ZipWho.com – Find preliminary demographics for any U.S. zip code.
Outreach Focus
PRIZM Premier Segmentation – PRIZM Premier is a segmentation system from Nielsen Claritas that harness both household and geographic level data. The 68 segments are arranged in two parts—social groups and lifestage groups. Social groups are classified by three levels of affluence (low, moderate and high) and by four levels of urbanization (urban, 2nd city, suburban and town and rural). Lifestage groups are classified by the same three levels of affluence and by three categories of age-and-children combinations (younger years, family life and mature years).
PRIZM Premier Segmentation Profile – Click here to see what a sample segmentation profile for your community looks like. A PRIZM profile illustrates the power and ministry uses of segmentation data.
MOSAIC Clusters – MOSAIC is a geodemographic segmentation system developed by Experian and marketed in over twenty countries worldwide. Read more about MOSAIC methodology here. The 71 MOSAIC clusters are used by The Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Growth at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Research (Books)
Rainer, Thom, The Unchurched Next Door: Understanding Faith Stages as Keys to Sharing Your Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003).
Strobel, Lee, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary: How to Reach Friends and Family Who Avoid God and The Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993).
Weiss, Michael J., The Clustering of America: A Vivid Portrait of the Nation’s 40 Neighborhood Types—Their Values, Lifestyles and Eccentricities (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1989).
White, James Emery, The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2014).