A sense of where you are

Anyone who likes maps, religion and useful or odd bits of data will have fun poking around the website created by the Association of Religion Data Archives, which now includes information from the 2010 census. The site allows for all kinds of searches by denomination and region.

For example, the curious can find out what U.S. counties have the highest or lowest percentage of Episcopalians. Coming in first is the Yukon-Koyukuk area of Alaska, where 38 percent of the population consider themselves Episcopalians. (I’m guessing the Episcopalians did some major mission work with native people there.) Next is Dewey County, South Dakota, at 17 percent. (More native missions there?)

You can also find maps showing regional concentration of various groups, such as this one showing the relative concentration of American Baptists in Illinois by county, broken out by adherents and by the number of congregations. I’m not exactly sure what this kind of map is good for, but if you’re someone who loves maps, as I do, it is satisfying to look at.