Florida’s Christian landscape includes large Catholic and evangelical Protestant populations, historically Black Protestant traditions, and many smaller denominational families. The figures below span two different measurement periods: ARDA’s 2020 adherence and congregation data, ARDA’s 2010 black Protestant rate, and Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 survey of adults in Florida. Because these sources measure religion in different ways, their percentages and counts should be read as distinct indicators rather than combined into one total.
Contents
- Statewide adherence in 2020
- Adult religious identity in 2023-24
- Evangelical Protestant traditions
- Historically Black Protestant and other Christian identities
- County-level Catholic and independent church patterns
- County-level Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal figures
Statewide adherence in 2020
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) Florida state map counted 10,140,053 adherents across all denominations in 2020. Its all-denominations adherence rate was 470.79 adherents per 1,000 residents, and Florida ranked fourth nationally for all-denominations adherents. The count describes adherents recorded across denominations, while the rate expresses that count relative to the resident population. They are related measures, but neither is the same as the share of adults who self-identify with a religious tradition in a survey.
ARDA’s 2020 state figures also provide a specific view of evangelical Protestant presence. Florida’s evangelical Protestant adherence rate was 184.34 per 1,000 residents, placing the state 17th among states for evangelical Protestant adherence rate. This rate is lower than the all-denominations rate because it covers a particular religious grouping rather than every denomination represented in the statewide total.
Catholic adherence was reported separately in the ARDA Catholic tradition profile. Florida’s Catholic adherence rate was 186.63 per 1,000 residents in 2020. The Catholic rate and evangelical Protestant rate are close in scale, but they come from separate tradition categories and should not be added to infer a complete statewide religious composition.
ARDA also recorded small counts for several specific groups. In 2020, Florida had two congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America, one congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Conference and Ministerium of North America, and two congregations in Church of God Apostolic, Inc. These figures illustrate why statewide totals can coexist with very small counts for individual church bodies: broad categories contain many organizations with different sizes and geographic footprints.
For historical context, ARDA’s Florida state map reported a black Protestant adherence rate of 17.73 per 1,000 residents in 2010, ranking Florida 12th among states for that rate. This is a 2010 measure and should not be treated as a 2020 or 2023-24 estimate.
Adult religious identity in 2023-24
Pew Research Center’s Florida Religious Landscape Study measured how adults in Florida identified during 2023-24. In that survey, 22% of Florida adults identified as Evangelical Protestant and 22% identified with Catholicism. These are adult identification percentages from a survey period, not ARDA’s counts of adherents or congregations.
The Pew Florida RLS also reported 7% identifying with the Baptist family within evangelical Protestantism. Within that family, 5% identified with the Southern Baptist Convention and 3% with independent Baptist traditions. The family-level and subgroup figures describe overlapping levels of classification, so the subgroup percentages should not be added to the overall 22% evangelical Protestant figure.
Pew reported 6% identifying with the nondenominational evangelical family. More specifically, 3% identified as nondenominational evangelical, 1% as nondenominational fundamentalist, and 1% as nondenominational charismatic. These detailed labels sit within the broader nondenominational evangelical family classification and help show the range of identities included in that family.
The statewide adult figures can be viewed side by side as follows:
| Adult identity or family | Florida adults, 2023-24 |
|---|---|
| Evangelical Protestant | 22% |
| Catholicism | 22% |
| Baptist family within evangelical Protestantism | 7% |
| Nondenominational evangelical family | 6% |
| Historically Black Protestant traditions | 7% |
| Pentecostal family | 2% |
Source for every row: [Pew Florida RLS]. The family and tradition categories are not mutually additive in this table because some entries are subdivisions of broader classifications.
Evangelical Protestant traditions
The 2023-24 Pew Florida RLS figures provide several additional denominational details. One percent of Florida adults identified with the Lutheran family, and 1% identified with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. One percent identified with the Presbyterian family, while 1% identified with the Presbyterian Church in America. As with the Baptist and nondenominational figures, these narrower affiliations provide detail within broader religious families.
The Pentecostal family accounted for 2% of Florida adults in the Pew survey. Within the reported Pentecostal breakdown, 1% identified with the Assemblies of God, 1% with the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), and 1% with other Pentecostal traditions. These are survey identification figures for 2023-24, not counts of congregations. They should therefore be kept separate from ARDA county reports that count congregations and adherents.
The Restorationist family represented 1% of Florida adults in the same Pew study, including 1% identifying with the Churches of Christ. The presence of a broad family percentage alongside a named tradition percentage reflects the survey’s classification structure. It does not establish a statewide number of Churches of Christ congregations from the facts reported here.
ARDA’s 2020 state map supplies a different type of evangelical statistic: 184.34 evangelical Protestant adherents per 1,000 residents and a national rank of 17th among states. Pew’s 22% adult identification estimate and ARDA’s adherence rate are useful for different questions. The former concerns how surveyed adults describe their identity in 2023-24; the latter concerns a 2020 rate recorded in a denominational data system.
Historically Black Protestant and other Christian identities
Pew’s Florida RLS reported that 7% of Florida adults identified with Historically Black Protestant traditions in 2023-24. Within that family, 3% identified with the Baptist family and 3% with the Pentecostal family. One percent identified with the National Baptist Convention, USA, and 2% identified with the Church of God in Christ.
These figures provide both a broad family measure and selected named or subfamily measures. They should not be interpreted as a single additive sequence: the Baptist, Pentecostal, National Baptist Convention, USA, and Church of God in Christ figures are classifications within the wider religious landscape, and the supplied data does not state that every category is mutually exclusive.
Pew also reported several other Christian identities among Florida adults in 2023-24. One percent identified as Latter-day Saints, 1% as Orthodox Christian, 1% as Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 1% as Other Christian. These figures are each small relative to the two 22% statewide measures for Evangelical Protestant and Catholicism, but they document additional parts of Florida’s Christian population.
The survey’s detailed results complement the ARDA figures without replacing them. ARDA’s 2010 black Protestant adherence rate of 17.73 per 1,000 residents is an older adherence-rate measure, while Pew’s 7% is a 2023-24 adult identification estimate for Historically Black Protestant traditions. The dates, populations, and measurement methods differ, so the two numbers should not be used to calculate a trend.
County-level Catholic and independent church patterns
ARDA county reports from 2020 show how selected Florida counties differed by tradition and scale. Brevard County had 13 Catholic Church congregations and 109,888 Catholic adherents. Orange County had 24 Catholic Church congregations and 224,505 Catholic adherents. Hillsborough County had 31 Catholic Church congregations and 387,099 Catholic adherents, while Lake County had seven Catholic Church congregations and 61,166 Catholic adherents.
Those county observations are not a statewide ranking and do not cover every Florida county. They are selected county-level snapshots from ARDA reports. The numbers also show why congregation counts alone do not describe the size of a tradition: the counties listed here have different combinations of congregations and adherents.
Non-denominational Christian figures were also reported for selected counties. Brevard County had 116 non-denominational Christian congregations and 54,828 adherents in 2020. Broward County had 262 such congregations and 192,200 adherents. Polk County had 118 non-denominational Christian congregations and 77,768 adherents.
Read together, these reports identify distinct local patterns: Catholic figures are available for Brevard, Orange, Hillsborough, and Lake counties, while non-denominational Christian figures are available for Brevard, Broward, and Polk counties. Brevard appears in both sets, but the supplied data does not provide a complete all-tradition religious profile for any of these counties.
County-level Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal figures
The ARDA Brevard County report recorded 64 Southern Baptist Convention congregations and 20,946 adherents in 2020. The same report recorded 18 United Methodist Church congregations and 13,591 adherents. These figures distinguish two named traditions within one county and show that the report measured both organizational presence and adherent counts.
Hillsborough County’s ARDA report recorded 179 Southern Baptist Convention congregations and 115,071 adherents in 2020. Compared with the Brevard County Southern Baptist figures, Hillsborough had more reported congregations and more reported adherents. That is a direct comparison of the two supplied county reports for the same year and named tradition; it is not a statewide estimate.
Pentecostal figures appear in the ARDA reports for Orange and Volusia counties. Orange County had 43 Assemblies of God congregations and 43,385 adherents in 2020. Volusia County had 15 Assemblies of God congregations and 20,028 adherents. The county reports therefore document Assemblies of God presence in both places, with different reported congregation and adherent totals.
The county-level figures can be summarized without treating the selected counties as a complete sample:
| County and tradition | Congregations | Adherents | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard — Catholic Church | 13 | 109,888 | 2020 |
| Brevard — Southern Baptist Convention | 64 | 20,946 | 2020 |
| Brevard — United Methodist Church | 18 | 13,591 | 2020 |
| Orange — Assemblies of God | 43 | 43,385 | 2020 |
| Hillsborough — Southern Baptist Convention | 179 | 115,071 | 2020 |
| Volusia — Assemblies of God | 15 | 20,028 | 2020 |
Source for every row: the relevant ARDA county report. The figures describe the reported congregations and adherents for each named tradition, not the total number of Christians in the county.
Taken together, the available statistics show why “Florida Christianity” is best understood through several lenses. ARDA’s 2020 statewide data records 10,140,053 adherents across all denominations, a rate of 470.79 per 1,000 residents, and a fourth-place national rank for the total. Pew’s 2023-24 survey records 22% of Florida adults identifying as Evangelical Protestant and 22% as Catholicism, alongside detailed Baptist, nondenominational, Historically Black Protestant, Pentecostal, and other Christian categories. ARDA’s 2020 county reports then show how congregation and adherent counts vary across selected local traditions and counties.