Where are all the catholics

                                  WHITE PAPER  JULY 2010    1 

                    Reaching Catholics with Targeted Media Planning  It’s vitally important in media planning and buying that you target your audience and  determine the right media market for your message.  The very first step in the process is to  understand the concentration of American Catholics in a given region.  For purposes of this  informational document, we researched populations up and down the eastern seaboard.  According to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the Catholic  share of the U.S. adult population has held fairly steady at just under 25% in recent decades.     2 

            What this seeming stability obscures, however, is the large number of people who have left  the Catholic Church.  Approximately one third of the survey respondents who say they were  raised in the Catholic faith no longer describe themselves as Catholic.  These numbers seem  to illustrate that roughly 10% of all Americans consider themselves as former Catholics.   Research shows, however, that these losses have been partly offset by the approximately  2.6% of the adult population who have changed their affiliation to Catholicism.   Another  factor that has assisted in keeping the steady percentage is the disproportionately high  percentage of Catholics among immigrants to the U.S.  These two variables have played a key  role in keeping the overall percentage of the population that identifies as Catholic fairly  stable.  (Source:  Pew Research 2010)    3 

Many assumptions have been made about the concentration of Catholics in certain regions  and cities.  However, the Pew Research Study has determined that one of the highest areas of  concentration is in the Northeast with 39% of the area’s population made up of Catholics.   Although this number is quite high, there are two areas along the eastern seaboard that are  even higher.  Those areas are Connecticut/Rhode Island with 43% concentration and New  Jersey with 42%.   Surprisingly, the Washington, DC/Maryland area has a much lower  concentration coming in at just 18%.      There are many areas to consider in an effort to target Catholics on the east coast.  Below we  have profiled several regions.    Market Snapshots (Source Wikipedia, 2000 US Census )  Providence, Rhode Island (Connecticut/Rhode Island)  Providence is the capital and most populous city in Rhode Island.  The Providence  metropolitan area, which includes Providence, Fall River, Massachusetts and Warwick has  an estimated population of 1,622,520.  In 2006, this area was officially added to the Boston  Combined Statistical Area (CSA), the fifth largest CSA in the country.  (What this means for a  media plan is that you have the ability to capture the Boston Metro at a much reduced rate.)   In the last fifteen years, Providence has experienced a sizable growth in its population age  group of those under 18.  This growth has been attributed to the influx of Hispanics.  The  median age in the city is 28 years although the largest age group is actually those between  the ages of 20 and 24.    4 

  DC Metro (includes Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland)  Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the state of Virginia  generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, DC.  The area is the most  diverse in terms of both the number of ethnic groups and nationalities represented.  It also  is the highest income region in Virginia with six of the twenty highest income counties in the  nation.  As of 2006, the census estimates over 2, 432,000 people in Northern Virginia.  This  number is approximately 32% of the state’s population.    Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the most affluent counties in the country, is situated  just north of Washington, DC and southwest of Baltimore.  The recorded population of the  region is approximately 971,600.  In addition to being one of the most affluent areas in the  nation, it also has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold a post  graduate degree.    5 

    New Jersey  New Jersey lies largely within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and  Philadelphia and is the most densely populated state in the United States.  The population in  July 2009 was estimated to be over 8,707,000 and represents an increase over the 2000  census of 268,000 or 3.2 percent.   According to the 2000 Census, the median age of a New  Jersey resident was 36.7 years and the number of 15 to 24 year olds in the area was  measured at over 1,005,000.      6 

    Having a specific geography and defined target will provide a better budget benchmark,  making for a much sounder media plan.      7 

Where are all the catholics

by mediaman64 on Aug 04, 2010

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Where are all the catholics — Document Transcript