placestats

Share of some other race, not Hispanic and Congregations per 10,000 people

A county is not a congregation. Counties where more people are counted as adherents (members of a religious group) also tend to differ on the other measure, and that is all. It does not follow that the adherents are the people with the different score. Making that leap is called the ecological fallacy: reading a pattern across places as a fact about individual people. It is as easy to fall into here as with the voting pairs. Two things about the counting matter too. Adherents are counted where their congregation meets, not where they live, so thirty very small counties exceed 100%. And a denomination that did not report is missing, not zero. That undercounts membership most where churches are least formally organised.

Across 970 counties, Share of some other race, not Hispanic and Congregations per 10,000 people have a link of -0.63, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and a very weak link of -0.15 remains. Most of the first figure came from both measures following how urban, rich and educated a place is, not from a link with each other.

Mostly gone after adjusting

Every place, plotted

One dot for each place reporting both measures. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name and values. The thin line is the straight line that best fits the dots. The bold line, shown for counties, is the link after adjusting for density, income and education. A dot far from the lines is a place that does not follow the pattern.

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What each measure is

Share of some other race, not Hispanic

The percentage of residents who report some other race alone and are not Hispanic. It is small almost everywhere. It is included so the eight shares cover everyone, with nobody left over.

Census ACS 5-year · ACS table B03002_008, divided by total population

Congregations per 10,000 people

How many separate congregations a place has per ten thousand residents. That is a different question from how many people belong. Rural counties have many small churches, and cities have fewer large ones.

· Religion Census 2020 files; 2010 from the ARDA, RCMSCY10 and RCMSST10

Highest and lowest

Where each measure is highest and lowest among the places reporting both (2023), with the other measure beside it. This is shown for every size of place where both are published. Metro-area values are added up from their counties. A measure that cannot be added up across counties, such as a middle value (median), has no metro figure. Counts are shown per 1,000 residents, since raw totals would only list the largest places. Cities and towns and ZIP codes are shown where the Census survey or the CDC publishes them; most other sources stop at the county. They are shown for places of 5,000 residents or more, and only where the survey’s margin of error is small enough for the figure to be usable. The CDC publishes its health estimates for cities in a version adjusted for age, so places with older or younger people can be compared fairly, but not for ZIP codes.

Counties

By share of some other race, not Hispanic

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
Plymouth County, MA2.52%5.69
Queens County, NY2.26%5.01
Schenectady County, NY1.69%7.78
Bristol County, MA1.63%5.47
Essex County, NJ1.43%7.58
Lowest
San Juan County, CO0%99.3
Saguache County, CO0%26.7
Rio Blanco County, CO0%27.6
Mineral County, CO0%57.8
Kiowa County, CO0%62.2

By congregations per 10,000 people

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
Kalawao County, HI0%366
Blaine County, NE0%116
Sheridan County, ND0%103
San Juan County, CO0%99.3
Highland County, VA0%98.6
Lowest
Loving County, TX0%0
Manassas Park city, VA0%1.74
Ocean County, NJ0.517%3.63
Bronx County, NY0.995%3.96
Broomfield County, CO0.347%4.05
States

By share of some other race, not Hispanic

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
Massachusetts1.15%6.2
New York0.901%6.85
Rhode Island0.773%6.45
New Jersey0.751%6.54
Connecticut0.728%8.01
Lowest
North Dakota0.245%18.6
Iowa0.248%15.1
Arkansas0.257%24.7
Kentucky0.263%18.1
Oklahoma0.281%18.1

By congregations per 10,000 people

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
Arkansas0.257%24.7
Mississippi0.322%24.3
West Virginia0.284%22.7
South Dakota0.29%21.9
Alabama0.307%21.4
Lowest
Nevada0.54%4.96
California0.535%5.96
Massachusetts1.15%6.2
Rhode Island0.773%6.45
New Jersey0.751%6.54
Metro areas

By share of some other race, not Hispanic

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
East Stroudsburg, PA1.4%7.84
Barnstable Town, MA1.25%7.64
Cheyenne, WY1.23%11
Kingston, NY1.23%10.4
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA1.22%6.11
Lowest
Zapata, TX0%15.8
Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH0%20.4
Weatherford, OK0%28.1
Victoria, TX0%12.4
Vernon, TX0%28.7

By congregations per 10,000 people

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
Camden, AR0%66.1
Paris, TN0%38.8
Eufaula, AL-GA0%37.1
Pine Bluff, AR0%34.8
Grenada, MS0%34.7
Lowest
Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV0.563%4.2
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA0.473%4.89
Reno, NV0.49%5.15
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA0.541%5.3
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA0.49%5.31
Cities and towns — Congregations per 10,000 people is not published for cities and towns

By share of some other race, not Hispanic

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
Brockton city, MA6.8%—
Framingham city, MA6.26%—
New Bedford city, MA4.17%—
Milford CDP, MA4.08%—
Marlborough city, MA3.91%—
Lowest
Terryville CDP, CT0%—
Southwood Acres CDP, CT0%—
Sandy Hook CDP, CT0%—
Ridgefield CDP, CT0%—
Pawcatuck CDP, CT0%—
ZIP codes — Congregations per 10,000 people is not published for ZIP codes

By share of some other race, not Hispanic

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Highest
ZIP 11419 (New York city, NY)19.7%—
ZIP 11436 (New York city, NY)11.7%—
ZIP 07105 (Newark city, NJ)8.66%—
ZIP 01702 (Framingham city, MA)8.45%—
ZIP 11420 (New York city, NY)8.4%—
Lowest
ZIP 08867 (Hunterdon County, NJ)0%—
ZIP 08853 (Neshanic Station CDP, NJ)0%—
ZIP 08833 (Hunterdon County, NJ)0%—
ZIP 08826 (Hunterdon County, NJ)0%—
ZIP 08758 (Ocean County, NJ)0%—

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 988 counties: the five with far more congregations per 10,000 people than their share of some other race, not Hispanic would suggest, and the five with far less.

Share of some other race, not HispanicCongregations per 10,000 people
Above the line
Kalawao County, HI0%366
Blaine County, NE0%116
Sheridan County, ND0%103
San Juan County, CO0%99.3
Highland County, VA0%98.6
Below the line
Loving County, TX0%0
Manassas Park city, VA0%1.74
Elliott County, KY0%5.44
Maverick County, TX0%9.85
Jim Wells County, TX0%12.6

Two series, one county

Both measures over time for a county you pick. The two charts are stacked, so they share only the years along the bottom. You can pick from the thirty largest counties reporting both. This panel covers 2010–2024, and a measure published only once shows as a single dot.

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Every version of the link

Each row measures the same link, from −1 to +1, in a different way. If the rows mostly agree, the link does not depend on one choice of method.

Before adjusting for anything-0.630970 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education-0.154the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size-0.022size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state-0.049each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight-0.102the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 159 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.612the link worked out inside each of 21 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.299uses each county’s rank, not its value, so a few extreme counties cannot create the link

How much to believe it

Could it be chance?

The p-value is the chance of seeing a link this strong if there were really none. A value of 0.05 or less means the link is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 3.1e-16 means 0.00000000000000031, and the bigger the number after “e-”, the smaller the value. Treating every county as a separate case gives p = 1.4e-6. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 0.005. The site tested 20,910 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 2.7e-6.

Do nearby places look alike?

Moran’s I measures how much nearby places look alike: 0 means no map pattern, and higher means neighbours are more similar. For the part of each county that the adjustment leaves unexplained, it is +0.30 (p = 0.001). That unexplained part still clusters on the map. So some regional factor shared by both measures is not accounted for.

Did they change together?

Not measurable: at least one of these is published for too few of the years a change needs (2014–2019 or 2019–2023), or for too few counties in both.

Related pairs

Association only. Nothing here shows that either measure changes the other. This describes counties, not the people in them. Two measures going together across places does not mean the same people have both. How the US county data works · Explore Share of some other race, not Hispanic and Congregations per 10,000 people