Top 5 Denominations among CCM Listeners
| Rank | Denomination | Percentage of CCM Respondents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Non-denominational/Bible/Community church | 34% |
| 2 | Baptist | 25% |
| 3 | Lutheran | 11% |
| 4 | Catholic | 10% |
| 5 | Pentecostal | 7% |
The 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey includes almost 12,000 Christian radio listeners nationwide—5,470 of them from Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) stations. And I’ll bet the denominations they identify with don’t surprise you. The top five are dominated with Evangelical Protestant denominations (no.1, no.2 and no.5 total to 66 percent).
What might surprise you is how different this top five is from the actual denominational composition of the United States. According to the Pew Religious Landscape Study from 2023-2024, 62 percent of Americans identify as Christian. Of that 62percent, here are the Top Five Denominations:
| Rank | Denomination | Percentage of the US Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evangelical Protestant | 37% |
| 2 | Catholic | 31% |
| 3 | Mainline Protestant | 18% |
| 4 | Historically Black Protestant | 8% |
| 5 | Latter Day Saint (Mormon) | 3% |
Geography makes a huge difference in these nationwide population numbers (for example, Christians in Dallas-Fort Worth are 44 percent Evangelical Protestant versus Chicago’s 17 percent, but it appears that there could be opportunity to help our stations reach beyond the Evangelical Protestant core.
What are the ways, without compromising the bold Biblical message, that we might attract listeners from other Christian denominations to worship God through our stations the other six days of the week?
Coming in February: From the 2025 Why Listen Survey, The Top 5 Marital Statuses represented among the respondents. Hint: Not all of your listeners are married!
