Classifying ‘Rural’ and ‘Urban’ Dioceses of the Church of England and the Church in Wales: Introducing the Ten-Factor Model

Abstract

At least since the advent of major industrialisation in the nineteenth century, there has been a notion of there existing two churches, one ‘urban’ and one ‘rural’. Since the 1970s, there has been a sporadic but not altogether unsuccessful attempt to test this proposition, and define the relative characteristics of both ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ church through analysis of official statistical data. Drawing upon the work of Francis [Francis, L. J. (1985). Rural Anglicanism: A future for young Christians? London: Collins Liturgical Publications] and Lankshear [Lankshear, D. W. (2001). One Church or three? Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Wales, Lampeter], the present study builds upon this tradition, offering a new model for defining ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ dioceses based upon 10 statistical factors. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the empirical approach to the formation of accurate definitions of the ‘rural’ and the ‘urban’. The study concludes by commending the 10-factor model for use by researchers concerned with developments in these areas.