The Southern Baptists are looking for congregants:
2The total number of Southern Baptists in the U.S. – and their share of the population – is falling. When the first Religious Landscape Study was conducted in 2007, Southern Baptists accounted for 6.7% of the U.S. adult population (compared with 5.3% in 2014). And according to the SBC’s
official membership tally, there were 14.8 million members of all ages in 2018, down about 1% from a year ago – part of a
longer pattern of decline.
3The Southern Baptist Convention is not a centralized church like the Roman Catholic Church, but a fellowship of congregations. Together,
these congregations teach that the Bible contains no errors and that personal acceptance of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. Southern Baptists also practice baptism by immersion in water. As of 2018, there were 47,456 Southern Baptist churches spread across 41 state conventions, according to the denomination. But Southern Baptists remain heavily concentrated in the South:
SBC figures show that 81% of its members live in the region, including about 2.7 million in Texas and more than a million each in Georgia and North Carolina.
4The vast majority of Southern Baptists are white (85%), with few black members (6%) and even fewer Latinos (3%), according to the
2014 Religious Landscape Study. Although the denomination is more
racially and ethnically diverse than the largest mainline Methodist or Lutheran churches (both are more than 90% white), it is less diverse than the rest of the evangelical Protestant tradition (73% white, 6% black, 13% Latino) and U.S. Protestants overall (69% white, 18% black, 8% Latino).
5Southern Baptists tend to express higher levels of religious commitment than Americans overall, though they’re generally in line with other evangelicals. Eight-in-ten Southern Baptists say religion is “very important” in their lives and that they pray at least daily (81% for both), compared with smaller majorities of Americans overall who say this (53% and 55%, respectively). The share of Southern Baptists who say the Bible is the literal word of God (61%) exceeds the share who hold this belief among all U.S. adults (31%)
and among other evangelical Protestants (53%).
6Southern Baptists are more conservative than the general U.S. public on some social issues, and sometimes even more so than other evangelicals. Clear majorities of Southern Baptists
say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases (66%) and that homosexuality should be discouraged by society (63%), according to the 2014 Religious Landscape Study. Smaller majorities of other evangelicals take these positions (63% and 53%, respectively), compared with minorities in the general population (43% and 31%, respectively). Like the U.S. public more broadly, Southern Baptists’ views on homosexuality have moved in a more liberal direction. In 2014, 63% said that homosexuality should be discouraged by society, down from 68% in 2007.
7Southern Baptists tend to favor the Republican Party. In 2014, roughly two-thirds of Southern Baptists identified as Republican or Republican-leaning independents (64%), a higher share than among other evangelicals (54%). These figures predate the candidacy and election of President Donald Trump. Vice President Mike Pence gave the keynote speech at last year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, drawing
cheers as well as criticism.
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