When the Foothills Presbytery of Greenville, S.C. ordered an area-wide demographic study for its 66 churches, ministers discovered a new group of people to serve.

The Foothills group of churches covers six counties and is home to some 23,000 Presbyterians. Recent demographics indicated what church leaders already knew, that it is a growing area, but the numbers also pointed out something church leaders hadn't seen before: the area is attracting a large number of older adults.

"There is a growing population of adults without children," said Bill Lancaster, who works with church health and growth at Foothills. "We had no idea about that."

The surprise quickly turned into an opportunity, according to Lancaster.

Demographic information can provide an introduction to a community by detailing such things as age, income, racial/ethnicity, education level, occupation and family structure. That introduction can be an opportunity for churches to understand how to reach a certain group of people for Christ.

Meet the new neighbors

"The value of demographics for churches is to understand what is going on in the population around them so they can be better attuned to the kinds of things they need to be thinking about in terms of programming," said Anthony Healy, president and founder of Atlanta-based Visions-Decisions, Demography for Churches

According to Healy although the community around the physical location of a church building may be different than the social connections within the congregation, a better understanding of the people around the church is critical.

Community outreach and evangelism are important reasons to consider a demographic study, according to Healy, especially for churches in decline.

Demographics can provide insight about the community that is essential for churches.

"[Churches] need to be interested in their community and the people outside their church and look at it as their mission field," said Tom Hoyt, vice president of marketing and communication for Percept Demographics.

"Established churches need to be re-evaluating their vision for ministry all the time and by getting current information on the people in their community it can help reinvigorate and show them where they may be missing," Hoyt said. "Just because a church is established and large does not mean they are effectively reaching out."

Know the community

Demographics are also the place to start for new churches.

"When you're looking at a new church start you have to peer into the community and see what are the starting points," said Healy. "For example, is it a young place to focus on young families and children?"

Healy said his studies are geared toward census data to help churches understand the area. "You have a feeling for how people in the community live and how you might fit into that," he said.

For church planters, Hoyt said demographics provide a baseline for understanding an area. "Usually church plants are attracted to areas that are growing. That's the first thing they can look for, potential growth rates."

Percept's Ministry Area Profile is the main demographic information resource requested by local churches. The profile is an extensive demographics report with select themes of interest such as ethnicity or education.

"That's really what Percept started with in the late 1980s," Hoyt said. "It has the most established recognition."

How to meet

Percept has also been recognized by American Demographics magazine for their cost-effective and accurate means of understanding local or regional dynamics beyond basic demographics.

According to Hoyt, demographics do not describe what people believe or value, or what concerns they might have. In answer to that Percept developed the Ethos Survey Series, through which they regularly survey extensive cross-sections of the American public for information about the beliefs, attitudes, concerns and religious behavior of the American people.

Percept contracts with National Family Opinion (NFO) Research of Toledo, Ohio to conduct the Ethos Survey. NFO is nationally known and respected and used extensively by many of the Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. for consumer research.

"It gives [churches] a great deal of insight," Hoyt said of the information provided by Percept.

Visions-Decisions also offers information of special interest to churches. They have exclusive services such as: an Unchurched/Churched Index, showing rates of affiliation in an area; a Religious Preference Index, showing religious leanings in an area; and a National Church Database, showing most of the established churches in a community, their theology, denominational family, race/ethnicity, and membership size.

The local demographic study is the most popular for Visions-Decisions, Healy said. That gives churches a picture of reality. "Often times people are only going from impressions that are incorrect," he said.

Costs

Rates for demographic studies at Visions-Decisions range from $250, for basic profiles of an area, to $8,000 for an extensive survey. Healy began his company in 1990 and has worked with nearly a dozen different denominations across the country.

Percept's services start with a first view report for $85 and top out at $6,500. They have worked with more than a dozen different denominations.

Certain bodies, such as the Church of the Nazarene and the Southern Baptist Convention, also provide limited demographic services free of charge for churches within their group.

Paulette Villarreal, an information specialist with the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention, said she provides hundreds of free reports each month to churches with a Southern Baptist affiliation.

"I do a lot of demographics," she said. She provides a six-page report for a designated area. So far the reports contain only census data, but NAMB is working to add a lifestyle component to the information.

Data is also readily available and easily accessible on the Internet. Online do-it-yourselfers can find census information for free and other information for a small fee.

In addition hundreds of demographics companies provide information. But most are geared toward the corporate world.

Numbers are not the answer

Healy also stressed that demographics, even information tailored to the concerns of a church, is not an answer to any church health or outreach problem. Rather, it is a beginning.

"The demographics are certainly not the end all and be all for congregations," Healy said.

Lancaster agreed. "It's only data," he said. But the Foothills Presbytery has used that data for new church development, and what he termed "re-development," or established churches adapting to accommodate the population around them.

"We've used it for getting an assessment for the potential for growth for all of our churches," Lancaster said. "We feel like we have an opportunity for Jesus Christ to be able to respond to the growth that's coming our way.

While most churches already offer programming geared toward families and young children, Lancaster said he wants churches to adapt to serve the older population and others identified in both the regional and individual church area demographics studies.

"If churches are aware, they can be inspired," Lancaster said.