Petros Baptist Church

I’m continuing investigation for the history of the Big Emory Association and discovered today, while researching the 1990’s, that the population of Morgan county in 1990 was 17,300; in 2000 it was 19,757. The total population changed +14.2%. The unadjusted adherent totals of all religious groups in the county (9,179) include 46.5% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (10,24 include 51.9% of the population. All of which means that growth in religious adherence had been slight over the decade and does not match the general population growth of more than 14%. Churches of all denominations, in other words, were not keeping up with population growth.

The picture for Roane county is not much different. The population of this county in 1990 was 47,227; in 2000 it was 51,910. The total population changed +9.9%. The unadjusted adherent totals of all religious groups in Roane county (30,191) include 58.2% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (33,847) include 65.2% of the population. Hence, Roane County is self evidently more ‘religious’ than Morgan.