Christian and gospel music reached 215 million people and every demographic group in the past month, according to new research unveiled by the Gospel Music Association (GMA).

Presented at the organization’s annual Immerse Conference on the LifeWay Christian Resources Nashville, Tennessee, campus, the GMA study, Gospel Music Association’s 2014 Christian & Gospel Music Industry Overview, shows that 68 percent of Americans listened to Christian or gospel music within the past 30 days. The genre is especially popular with African-Americans, with 93 percent having listened to gospel in the past year.

Like its secular counterparts, Christian and gospel music has been propelled in popularity by its placement in mainstream pop culture, notably on reality television and in film. The nation’s most-attended tour in 2014 was the annual Winter Jam festival, which surpassed tours with Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce.

The study also showed that consumers of the Christian and gospel genre still buy music at retail, though not at the same rate as a decade ago. The top 10 albums sold more than 17 million copies, according to the GMA research. Christian and gospel music represents 6.6 percent of the overall market for music sales in the U.S.

The best-selling artists were Casting Crowns, Lecrae, MercyMe and the Newsboys. In the Christian genre, adult contemporary and gospel represented over 50 percent of the market; meanwhile, Christian rock and Southern gospel seem to be stagnating.

“I think that what I realize is that we did not have in one place a snapshot of the entire Christian and gospel music industry,” said Jackie Patillo, GMA executive director. “The last time a comprehensive study was done was over seven years ago. So not only is it interesting to go through and actually see the numbers in a quantifiable form, but it’s something we can give to sponsors and other companies to say, 'This is what the faith-based community looks like.'"

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