A recent Barna study compiled a list of most generous cities in America, in addition to an earlier list of the most Bible-minded cities published earlier this year, and a survey of churchless cities and post-Christian cities released in 2015.
Cities that register the highest percentage of donations are the same as the cities where people give most to the churches, the study found.
The most generous city was El Paso in Texas where 92 percent of the residents donated to charities and non-profit organizations, followed by Lexington (91 percent) in Kentucky, Memphis (90 percent) in Tennessee, Charleston-Huntington (90 percent) in West Virginia, and Milwaukee (89 percent) in Wisconsin.
The same cities that were most generous gave most of the donations to churches.
El Paso and Las Cruces in New Mexico form a combined statistical area, where most of the adults donated through churches (87 percent). In Lexington, about 84 percent gave specifically to churches, followed by Milwaukee (73 percent), Memphis (69 percent), and Charleston-Huntington (64 percent).
The results also show that people don't have to be rich to be generous.
In El Paso-Las Cruces, only 7 percent of the Americans were "upscale" or had an annual household income of $75,000 or more, and 13 percent were "downscale" with annual income of $20,000 or less. In other cities that were highly generous as well, the proportion of "downscale" people was higher than the "upscale" ones, with the exception of Milwaukee where "upscale" people (12 percent) outnumbered the "downscale" population (10 percent) by a two percent margin.
For the survey, more than 76,000 people were interviewed via telephone and internet over a period of ten years which ended in April of 2016.
In another multi-year survey published in January 2016, Barna Group listed the top Bible-minded cities in the country. The traditional faith-zone of the South once again emerged as the most Bible-minded region in the country.
About 52 percent of the population in Chattanooga, Tennessee identified itself as the most Bible-minded in the country. Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa in Alabama came second with 51 percent of the people calling themselves fervent readers of the Bible.
On the other hand, there are some cities in the US which score high in 'churchlessness.' San Francisco tops this list, as about 61 percent of its Bay Area residents are unchurched, which the study defines as not having attended church in the last six months except on holidays or special occasions.
Barna Group distinguishes between the "never-churched" and "dechurched" population.
"Never churched" group had never regularly attended a church, while "dechurched" individuals used to attend church regularly at some point in their lives, but have not done so in the last six months.
West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce in Florida had the highest percentage of unchurched population (17 percent). San Francisco (14 percent) ranked sixth on this list.
Among the most "dechurched" cities, California Bay Area again took the top slot with 48 percent "dechurched" individuals.
In America, the unchurched population is much lower than the cities ranking high in churchlessness. On average, about 29 percent of America's population is dechurched, and some 9 percent is never churched.
