Search Maps for Denominational Names
Our local free newspaper enlightened us on the existence of StateStats, a free online tool for creating search maps depicting the popularity of search terms by state. The search map tool basically counts how many people searched for a term in the past 30 days and then creates a heat map. Red indicating the most search activity and blue indicating the least search activity. We decided to play with the tool and toss in some of the more common terms used on CAS. You may find the resulting search maps as interesting as we did.
Being in the deep South, affectionately (or not) known as the Bible Belt and home to many of the world's 16 million Southern Baptists, the first term used was "Baptist". The search map above was certainly not much of a surprise, except that the activity is clustered at one end of the Bible Belt and doesn't extend evenly throughout the Bible Belt. We were expecting Georgia and North Carolina to appear redder.
Our next search map proved a bit more surprising. The second search map above depicts search activity for the term "evangelical." Once again we find the search activity is clustered together in a small group of contiguous states. The surprise was that instead of the cluster being located in the Bible Belt of the South, the cluster is located in the Northern Midwest. With a bit of poking about in Google, we discovered that the above area coincides with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). A Glenmary map of the Largest Participating Protestant Religious Groups is almost a perfect match. Mystery solved. Scooby snacks for everyone.
One of the first things you likely noticed about the third search map above is that the nice, neat red cluster of the first two maps doesn't exist. There are red states all over the map. This is a search map for "Catholic". Of course, after the initial surprise, the map makes sense.
While New England (MA, NY, RI) is reknown for being heavily Catholic, those are the same states that are reknown for having the highest concentrations "liberal" Catholics who seem poorly catechized. MD was the site of the first Catholic colony and is home to the mother church of all Catholics in America. LA is the state divided into Catholic parishes instead of counties and recently elected Catholic as governor.
Nebraska as a bit of a surprise as when one says the word "Catholic" anything but "Nebraska" pops into mind. However, Nebraska is the home of the world famous Boys Town founded by Catholic priest Father Edward Flanagan. You may (or may not) recall the black and white movie with Spencer Tracy and a young Mickey Rooney.
I think we were expecting a red cluster from California to Texas as that region is heavily Hispanic Catholic. Perhaps they are searching on "Catolica?" (Or not)
Related Posts:
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics (links to Glenmary maps of religious adherents)
2008 Evangelical Electoral MapChristian Apologetics Society Readership
Source: StateStats
Map #1
Being in the deep South, affectionately (or not) known as the Bible Belt and home to many of the world's 16 million Southern Baptists, the first term used was "Baptist". The search map above was certainly not much of a surprise, except that the activity is clustered at one end of the Bible Belt and doesn't extend evenly throughout the Bible Belt. We were expecting Georgia and North Carolina to appear redder.
Map #2
Our next search map proved a bit more surprising. The second search map above depicts search activity for the term "evangelical." Once again we find the search activity is clustered together in a small group of contiguous states. The surprise was that instead of the cluster being located in the Bible Belt of the South, the cluster is located in the Northern Midwest. With a bit of poking about in Google, we discovered that the above area coincides with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). A Glenmary map of the Largest Participating Protestant Religious Groups is almost a perfect match. Mystery solved. Scooby snacks for everyone.
Map #3
One of the first things you likely noticed about the third search map above is that the nice, neat red cluster of the first two maps doesn't exist. There are red states all over the map. This is a search map for "Catholic". Of course, after the initial surprise, the map makes sense.
While New England (MA, NY, RI) is reknown for being heavily Catholic, those are the same states that are reknown for having the highest concentrations "liberal" Catholics who seem poorly catechized. MD was the site of the first Catholic colony and is home to the mother church of all Catholics in America. LA is the state divided into Catholic parishes instead of counties and recently elected Catholic as governor.
Nebraska as a bit of a surprise as when one says the word "Catholic" anything but "Nebraska" pops into mind. However, Nebraska is the home of the world famous Boys Town founded by Catholic priest Father Edward Flanagan. You may (or may not) recall the black and white movie with Spencer Tracy and a young Mickey Rooney.
I think we were expecting a red cluster from California to Texas as that region is heavily Hispanic Catholic. Perhaps they are searching on "Catolica?" (Or not)
Related Posts:
Evangelism Explosion Among Catholics (links to Glenmary maps of religious adherents)
2008 Evangelical Electoral MapChristian Apologetics Society Readership
Source: StateStats
Labels: Baptist, Catholic, Demographics, Lutheran, Maps, Statistics
0 Comments:
<< Home