A few days ago, Thom Rainer wrote on article reflecting on the past decade he has served as a church consultant (// link). Whether you’re reading this as one in vocational ministry or as a layperson, either way, you need to read his fascinating article. Something that struck me is that most churches and church leaders do not know basic demographics surrounding their church. This caused me to look-up some of the statistics my leadership and I studied during the beginning stages of our re-planting process at Church of the Highlands.
Here is some interesting info about the five mile radius of our church property in the Harrison Bay/Ooltewah community:*
- 83% white, 13% black.
- 26% of our population is under 20 years old.
- 64% of our community lives in a husband-wife-kids household. This is abnormally high. The American average is 48% (source).
- 16,309 households.
- 15,313 occupied households.
- 22% of the houses in our community are owned free and clear.
- Total Population: 40,140.
- We are the fastest-growing community in the Chattanooga region (source).
*Unless a source is linked after a statistic, all of these stats are from the 2010 US Census Bureau, provided by NAMB‘s demographic department.
