It used to be that being a Cobb resident or an Atlantan was nearly synonymous with being a Baptist. Not anymore.

That is just one of the factoids that can be gleaned from the new 2009-10 edition of The Atlanta Business Chronicle's annual Book of Lists. As usual, the "book" compiles and collates reams of data related in one way or another to the business world, and then breaks it out in easy-to-digest lists. So here are some of the high spots:

* Two generations ago, Catholics were as rare as hen's teeth in Cobb. Now, they've just about taken over the joint.

The largest church in Cobb is St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church on King Springs Road in Smyrna, pastored by the Rev. James Kuczynksi, with 19,780 members, according to the ABC. It also ranks as the second-largest church in the metro area, behind only the Rev. Eddie Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, which has more than 25,000 members.

In third place in the metro area is First Baptist of Woodstock, with 17,000 members, followed by another Catholic house of worship in Cobb, Transfiguration Catholic Church on Blackwell Road in east Cobb, headed by the Rev. Msgr. Patrick Bishop, with 15,277 members.

All told, six of the metro area's 10 largest churches are Catholic, according to the ABC - one more indication of the demographic changes that have swept across Georgia in recent decades.

Mount Bethel United Methodist, pastored by the Rev. Randy Mickler in east Cobb, is the largest Protestant church in Cobb, according to the ABC, with 9,000 members, and comes in at number 11 on its metro rankings.

And the biggest Baptist church in Cobb? Johnson Ferry Baptist on Johnson Ferry Road in east Cobb, with 7,599, at number 16 metro-wide and pastored by the Rev. Bryant Wright.

But the ABC's numbers come with a significant caveat: "Several Atlanta-area Catholic churches may qualify for this list, but only track family memberships," it reads.

(There's also the very real chance that some of the county's mega churches failed to respond to the survey, and would otherwise be ranked high on that list. After all, the ABC's rankings in the mid-2000s reported that the Catholic Church of St. Ann in east Cobb, St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic in Kennesaw and Roswell Street Baptist in Marietta each had at least 9,300 members. I haven't heard anything about those houses of worship drying up and blowing away since then.)

* A generation ago, Cobb's two big malls were hard to top for shopping options. Now, not so much. Town Center ranks only ninth in the top 25, with 1,272,000 square feet of shopping (and 6,580 parking spaces), with Cumberland Mall twelfth at 1,050,000 square feet (and 4,877 parking spaces) and Barrett Pavilion 18th with 672,377 square feet (and the number of spaces unavailable). First was the Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County with 1,793,400, followed by Perimeter Mall and Lenox Square in Fulton.

* Kennesaw State University is now the fourth-largest institution of higher learning in the area, with 21,449 students. Ahead of it are the University of Georgia, Georgia State University and Georgia Perimeter College. Marietta's Chattahoochee Technical University ranked 12th with 5,623 and Southern Polytechnic State University was 17th with 4,818.

* Cobb boasts one of the top five wealthiest zip codes in the area: 30068 in lower east Cobb, where the average household income last year was $149,481 and the average net worth was $1.4 million.

* Cobb can claim two of the largest minority-owned firms in the metro area. The biggest is Wade Ford in Smyrna, at Number 10 on the ABC list. It is owned by Steve Ewing, has 83 employees and listed 2008 revenues of $99.2 million. At Number 23 is Bronner Brothers Inc. on Powers Ferry Road. The beauty products company, owned by the Bronner Family, was founded in 1947 and has 152 employees.

* Cobb also did well on the list of the area's 10-Fastest-Growing Women-Owned Firms. Hospitality Staffing Solutions LLC, on Powers Ferry Road owned by Kappy King, was founded in 1999 and has grown to more than 6,000 employees in 32 states and is ranked eighth on the list.

* Cobb also is home to a pair of the metro area's fastest-growing private companies. Ranked at Number Four is Cork-Howard Construction Co. of Marietta, headed by Gene Cork, Lori Howard, Brandon Cleghorn and Mark Williams. And at Number 18 is Hospitality Solutions, already mentioned above.

* In addition, Cobb can claim the company that earned the top ranking among large companies in terms of Best Places to Work: builder Brasfield & Gorrie of Kennesaw, headed by regional president Rob Taylor.

* Here's a surprise: The sixth-largest employer in metro Atlanta is not Lockheed-Martin, not Home Depot, not even WellStar, but the Cobb public school system. It had 15,663 employees as of Dec. 1, 2008, up 2.85 percent from the year before. The only larger employers were Delta (with 25,000 employees), Wal-Mart, Emory University, the Gwinnett school system (with 20,800) and AT&T. Publix ranked ninth, The Home Depot 10th and WellStar Health Systems 12th.

Lockheed's workforce is down substantially from decades past, and it's a far cry from the more than 30,000 people who worked at the plant during World War II and again during the Vietnam era. It listed 7,171 employees as of Dec. 1, 2008, but has been hiring again lately as it ramps up production of the F-35 Lightning fighter jet.

* And are you hungry yet? Five of Atlanta's Top 20 Caterers are from Cobb - and three of them specialize in barbecue. At No. 9 is Saratoga Event Group of east Cobb, with Williamson Bros. Barbecue of Marietta at No. 13, Lowcountry Barbecue of Smyrna at No. 14, the Rib Ranch on Canton Road at No. 18 and Added Touch Catering of east Cobb at No. 20.

Yes, the metro area's demographics continue to change. Just look at where we're going on Sunday mornings. But when it comes time to eat, that Southern fondness for barbecue is holding strong.

Joe Kirby is Editorial Page Editor of the Marietta Daily Journal and co-author of the new "Then & Now: Marietta Revisited."