Thou shalt covet this list.

Research and resource company Barna Group has come out with a ranking of the most Bible-minded cities in America. “Bible-minded” is defined as reading the good book during the week and believing it’s truthful in the values it passes on. Nearly 43,000 people were polled to help put the rankings together.

The list definitely has a southern flavor because nine of the top 10 spots are all below the Mason-Dixon line, with Shreveport, Louisiana finishing in a tie for first with Knoxville, Tennessee and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Those areas each reported 52% of the population as being Bible-minded. In fact, just about all the cities in the top 30 are in the South.

The bottom part of the list skews considerably to a different part of the country. Providence, Rhode Island-New Bedford, Massachusetts claimed the title of least Bible-minded city, with a score of 9%. That led a charge of cities mostly in the northeastern part of the country.

10 MOST BIBLE-MINDED CITIES
1. (tie) Knoxville, Tennessee (52% of the population is Bible-minded)
1. (tie) Shreveport, Louisiana (52%)
1. (tie) Chattanooga, Tennessee (52%)
4. (tie) Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa, Alabama (50%)
4. (tie) Jackson, Mississippi (50%)
6. Springfield, Missouri (49%)
7. (tie) Charlotte (48%)
7. (tie) Roanoke-Lynchburg, Virginia (48%)
7. (tie) Hunstville-Decatur, Alabama (48%)
10. Charleston-Huntington, West Virginia (47%)

10 LEAST BIBLE-MINDED CITIES
1. Providence, Rhode Island-New Bedford, Massachusetts (9% of the population is Bible-minded)
2. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York (10%)
3. (tie) Burlington, Vermont-Plattsburgh, New York (16%)
3. (tie) Portland-Auburn, Maine (16%)
3. (tie) Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut (16%)
3. (tie) Boston, Massachusetts-Manchester, New Hampshire (16%)
3. (tie) San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (16%)
8. Phoenix-Prescott, Arizona (17%)
10. (tie) Cedar Rapids-Waterloo, Iowa (18%)
10. (tie) Buffalo (18%)
10. (tie) Las Vegas (18%)
10. (tie) New York (18%)

More From TSM Interactive