New Statewide Demographics Report: The Need in Iowa by the Numbers

A new demographics report prepared by the North American Mission Board for Send Network Iowa puts numbers to something many of us have sensed for years: Iowa is a mission field. Of the 3,274,155 people who live in this state, 1,759,020 — 55% — have no religious affiliation at all. That is more than every church, of every kind, combined.

The rest of the report fills in the picture. Iowa has 4,827 congregations, but Southern Baptists account for just 16,129 adherents — about half of one percent of the population. When Iowans were asked whether they attend church regularly, nearly 1.6 million said no, and more than 1.1 million of those said so emphatically. Even counting every tradition, the largest religious bodies in the state — Catholic, ELCA, and United Methodist — together account for well under a third of Iowans. Sort the affiliated by tradition and the picture sharpens further: only about 1 in 9 Iowans is connected to an evangelical church of any kind.

The report also tells us who our neighbors are. Iowa is a state of small towns and steady households: a median age of 39.4, more than 700,000 children, and communities where most people know each other by name. Nearly 100,000 adults speak Spanish at home — a growing opportunity for Spanish-language church planting that most of our churches have not yet reached.

None of this is cause for despair. It is cause for sending. Every one of those 1.7 million people lives on a street, in a town, within reach of a church that does not yet exist. We have put the full picture — population, generations, spiritual landscape, and what it means for planting — on one page. Take a look at the need in Iowa, and then ask what part your church might play.