I've heard that multiple times living here but have never seen the year or the facts of it, but just a random bit of information, Abilene also holds the world record for the World's Largest Game of Twister, where they lined the entirety of Moody Colluseum (the basketball court) with twister mats and the entire freshman class of that year played one huge game of twister.

Guiness records are available on the internet. If I wondered the most churches per capita, I would type it in my favorite search box.

Thats been goin round since the 1950's. It was Ripley's Believe It, Or Not. The correct statement was Abilene had more churches than gas stations (in the 1950's). The other one was the funeral home named Laughter-North (correctly pronounce Lawter), but laughter was funnier.

I wish I had kept the Magazine. I lived in California and flew to Abilene to visit family once or twice a year. One time, it was around 1986-1990 in one of the magazines I bought for the flight. Something like Woman's Day or Family Circle - that genre. The article was about "spirituality in America". Abilene was number 2. Their rating was based entirely on number of churches per capita. Not how much $$ was given to charity, homeless shelters-things I think of as christian/spiritual; some way to measure if they "practice what they preach". And today, Abilene is number 2 in the nation for "leaning red". (second only to Provo Utah) I live in Abilene now, and it definitely feels like Abilene could very well be the buckle on the bible belt.

I have heard that about almost every city I've ever been to in the South, and many others as well. Standard urban myth. After some research, the best I could find was that Memphis, TN led the pack in 1996 with one church for every 875 residents. I've found recent claims that Nashville is now in that spot, claiming approximately 700 congregations in Davidson County. Checking the census numbers and running the math, that would put them at one church per 885 residents, which doesn't top the old Memphis numbers (which have probably changed, one way or the other). These probably aren't even the top cities; it's just that it's exceedingly rare for anyone to even attempt to cite statistics. Most just randomly state that they've got the most churches per capita with nothing to back it up because the myth has been spread for so long that they assume it's just accepted fact. Some others are clearly conjuring false statistics, like one claim I found that Pensacola, FL has one church for every 14 residents, which is completely absurd. Granted, Pensacola is a strange creature because what is technically Pensacola on census and what is really considered Pensacola in reality are wildly different. The city limits are tiny, and on paper, the census lists the population at under 55,000. The Pensacola metropolitan area, though, is listed at almost 440,000. Still, even with counting churches from the entire metropolitan area but only counting them against the people within the Pensacola city limits, that would require about 3928 churches in the area, which at the very least is highly unlikely. A list of other cities I found making this claim with no numbers to back it up: Charleston, SC Wheaton, IL Las Vegas, NV Turlock, CA Berkeley, CA Lubbock, TX Garden Grove, CA Chattanooga, TN Newberg, OR Zion, IL Rocky Mount, NC Grandville, MI Mansfield, OH The list goes on. I'm sure I could find more, but I think this is sufficient to make the point.

Yikes! There's a place for me to stay away from!