Fast Facts

1. How many religious congregations are there in the United States?
2. What’s the average size of U.S. churches?
3. How many people go to church each Sunday?
4. How many denominational groups are there in the United States?
5. What are the 25 largest denominational groups?
6. What denominations are gaining members and what denominations are losing members?
7. Are U.S. churches multiracial?
8. How many seminaries are there in the United States?
9. How many clergymen and women are there in the United States?
10. How much do pastors make?
11. What’s the average age of congregational leaders?
12. Are clergymen and women healthy?
13. Are more women enrolling in seminary?
14. Are more women serving in churches today?
15. Why are women dropping out of seminary, or ministry?
16. Is there a salary gap between men and women clergy?
17. Is there a relationship between church growth and youth involvement?
18. Does having electric guitars cause church growth? – coming soon
19. Does having a website create a growing church? – coming soon
20. What’s the definition of a megachurch, and how many are there in the United States?
21. Where are megachurches located?
22. How many Muslims are there in the United States?
23. How many churches use the Internet? – coming soon
24. How can I find a church in a certain town?
    

Q: How many religious congregations are there in the United States?
A: There is no official directory for all the congregations in the county, so sociologists of religion have to rely on statistical estimates extrapolated from surveys. These are often disputed, and to complicate matters, thousands of new churches open each year, while thousands of others close. Hartford Institute estimates there are roughly 335,000 religious congregations in the United States.  Of those, about 300,000 are Protestant and other Christian churches, and 22,000 are Catholic and Orthodox churches.  Non-Christian religious congregations are estimated at about 12,000.
Want to know more? An excellent discussion of where these figures come from and how they were arrived at can be found in Kirk Hadaway’s and Penny Marler’s excellent article in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 44, Number 3, September 2005, pp. 307-322.  

Q: What’s the size of U.S. churches?
A: The median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study http://www.soc.duke.edu/natcong/ . Notice that researchers measured the median church size — the point at which half the churches are smaller and half the churches are larger — rather than the average (186 attenders reported by the USCLS survey http://www.uscongregations.org/charact-cong.htm ), which is larger due to the influence of very large churches. But while the United States has a large number of very small churches, most people attend larger churches. The National Congregations Study estimated that the smaller churches draw only 11 percent of those who attend worship. Meanwhile, 50 percent of churchgoers attended the largest 10% of congregations (350 regular participants and up).
Want to know more? Check the websites for the National Congregations Study at http://www.soc.duke.edu/natcong/ The US Congregational Life Survey (USCLS) website has statistics about congregations by religious traditions at http://www.uscongregations.org/charact-cong.htm

Approximate Distribution of U.S. Protestant and Other Christian Churches by size
(excluding Catholic/Orthodox)

Q: How many people go to church each Sunday?
A: For years, the Gallup Research Organization has come up with a consistent figure — 40 percent of all Americans, or roughly 118 million people, who said they attended worship on the previous weekend. Recently, sociologists of religion have questioned that figure, saying Americans tend to exaggerate how often they attend. By actually counting the number of people who showed up at representative sample of churches, two researchers, Kirk Hadaway and Penny Marler found that only 20.4 percent of the population, or half the Gallup figure, attended church each weekend.

Q: How many denominational groups are there in the United States?
A: This is a very tough question, because it depends on how a denomination is defined. There were 217 denominations listed in the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. But there may well be other groups that function as a denomination but do not regard themselves as such. The single largest religious group in the United States is the Roman Catholic Church, which had 67 million members in 2005. The Southern Baptist Convention, with 16 million members, was the largest of the Protestant denominations. The United Methodist Church was the second-largest Protestant denomination with 8 million members.  In third and fourth spots were the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormon church, with 6 million member, and the Church of God in Christ, a predominantly black Pentecostal denomination, with 5.5 million members.
Want to know more? Go to the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The Yearbook costs $50 and may be ordered at: http://www.electronicchurch.org  You can also find a listing of denominations and their websites at http://hirr.hartsem.edu/denom/homepages.html

Largest 25 Denominations/Communions from the 2007 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.

1. The Catholic Church, 69,135,254 members, reporting an increase of 1.94 percent.

2. The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,270,315 members, reporting an increase of .02 percent.

3. The United Methodist Church, 8,075,010 members, reporting a decrease of 1.36 percent.

4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,690,672 members, reporting an increase of 1.63 percent.

5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

6. National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., 5,000,000 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,850,776, reporting a decrease of 1.62 percent.

8. National Baptist Convention of America, 3,500,000, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,098,842 members, reporting a decrease of 2.84 percent.

10. Assemblies of God, 2,830,861 members, reporting an increase of 1.86 percent.

11. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

13. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 2,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

14.  The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,440,864, reporting a decrease of .93 percent.

15. Episcopal Church, 2,247,819, reporting a decrease of 1.59 percent.

16. Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, reporting an increase of 9.30 percent. First updated report since 1999

17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

19. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,432,795 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

20. American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,396,700, reporting a decrease of 1.97 percent.

21. United Church of Christ, 1,224,297, reporting a decrease of 3.28 percent.

22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International, 1,200,000, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,615 members, no increase or decrease reported. No updated report.

24. The Orthodox Church in America, 1,064,000 members, reporting an increase of 6.40 percent. No updated report.

25. Jehovah's Witnesses, 1,046,006 members, reporting an increase of 1.56 members.

The total number of members reported within the largest 25 communions is 149,222,807 with an averall increase of .82 percent.
The 2007 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches costs $50 and may be ordered at www.electronicchurch.org

Q: What denominations are gaining members and what denominations are losing members?
A: Mainline Protestant denominations continued to decline, according to the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the United Church of Christ, all reported slight decreases in membership in 2005. For the first time in many years, the Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative evangelical denomination, also showed a decrease of 1 percent. 

The winners in 2005 were the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Assembles of God; each reported a 2 percent growth. The Roman Catholic Church reported an increase of less than 1 percent. But the biggest increase came from the Orthodox Church in America, which reported a 6 percent increase, bringing total membership to about 1 million members.

Sociologists have also found that larger evangelical Protestant churches appear to be growing, while smaller churches posted smaller growth.  Based on data from the Faith Communities Today survey, evangelical churches with more than 1,000 people posted the largest gains over the past five years: 83 percent.
Want to know more? Go to the 2007 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The Yearbook costs $50 and may be ordered at: http://www.electronicchurch.org
Check out the Faith Communities Today 2000 survey of congregations, http://www.fact.hartsem.edu  You might also want to read How Strong is Denominational Identity?

Q: Are U.S. churches multiracial?
A:  Sadly, no. Eleven o’clock Sunday morning continues to be the most segregated hour in America. A study by sociologist Michael Emerson showed that churches where 20 percent of members were of a racial minority comprised only 7 percent of U.S. congregations. Overall, 5 percent of Protestant churches and 15 percent of Roman Catholic churches were multi-racial. But Sociologist Scott Thumma found that megachurches, in the 2005 “Megachurches Today” study, may be changing that balance. In his study, 35 percent of megachurches claimed to have 20 percent or more minorities. What’s more, 56 percent of megachurches said they were making an intentional effort to become multi-racial.
Want to know more? Read People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States by Michael Emerson, (Princeton University Press, 2006) Also, read the Megachurches Today report at http://hirr.hartsem.edu//megachurch/megachurches_research.html

Q: How many seminaries are there in the United States?
A: The Association of Theological Schools reported 251 member schools in the United States and Canada in 2005. (In the U.S., there were 215.) The vast majority of those schools are accredited. Others are working toward accreditation.  Of those schools, 141 were Protestant, 53 were non-denominational or inter-denominational, 54 were Roman Catholic, and three were Orthodox Christian. Enrollment in all 251 member schools was 81,302 in 2005.
Want to know more? Go to the website for the Association of Theological Schools, http://www.ats.edu  and click on the 2005/06 Annual Data Tables.  You can also find a page with links to all these seminaries at http://www.ats.edu/member_schools/alpha.asp

 
Q: How many clergymen and women are there in the United States?
A:  The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches  http://www.electronicchurch.org/  recently reported that there were 600,000 clergy serving in various denominations in the United States. But that figure included retired clergy, chaplains in hospitals, prisons and the military, denominational executives, and ordained faculty at divinity schools and seminaries. The 600,000 figure did not include independent churches, not tied to a denomination. “There’s no way to know how many there are,” said Jackson Carroll, professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School. In addition, the figures provided by the denominations to the Yearbook may not be that accurate, Carroll said.  Nevertheless, at present it is the best figure to use.
Want to know more? Read chapter 3 in Jackson Carroll’s God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, (W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006) or see the brief article about the book at http://hirr.hartsem.edu/louisville/newsletter3-2.htm#featured.  The Pulpit and Pew website http://www.pulpitandpew.duke.edu/ has additional information about the characteristics and state of American clergy.

Q: How much do pastors make?
A: On average, an ordained Protestant pastor serving a small congregation received a median salary and housing package of $31,234, according to a study by sociologist Jackson Carroll. But there is a wide disparity in compensation between Protestant pastors serving small congregations and those serving medium and large congregations. For example, a Protestant pastor serving a congregation of more than 1,000 members received a median salary and housing package of $81,923. Considering that the vast majority of churches in the United States are small, the overall compensation package for Protestant pastors is low when compared with teachers and social workers. Roman Catholic priests earned less than Protestant pastors, in part because they have no family to support. Depending on the size of the parish, the median salary for Catholic priests runs between $21,000 and $26,095. Jewish rabbis earn more than Roman Catholic and Protestant pastors combined.
Want to know more? Read chapter 3 in Jackson Carroll’s God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, (W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006). The Leadership Network, an innovative large church resourcing organization, does an annual survey of salaries for very large church pastors and staff at http://www.leadnet.org/Resources_Downloads.asp  You might also want to read our Quick Question – Are you paying your pastor enough? http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/quick_question42.html 

Q: What’s the average age of congregational leaders?
A:  In the past few decades, men and women have been entering the ministry at older ages. Most had another career before going to seminary, and by the time they settled into the role of minister they tended to be middle-aged.  In a recent study, the median age of senior or solo Protestant pastors was 51. The median age of senior or solo black pastors was 53. Roman Catholic priests are the oldest; their median age was 56. Associate pastors and those serving in non-church settings tended to be slightly younger.  In a 2001 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the median age of full-time, graduate-educated minister was 45.
Want to know more? Read chapter 3 in Jackson Carroll’s God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, (W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006) for more information.

Q: Are clergymen and women healthy?
A:  Clergy tend to say they are in good shape. Of the nearly 900 pastors who participated in a national telephone survey for Pulpit & Pew http://www.pulpitandpew.duke.edu/, a Lilly Endowment-funded research project, 76 percent said they enjoyed excellent or very good physical health. However, a follow up question found that 78 percent of clergy are either overweight (48 percent) or obese (30 percent). Though these figures are comparable to the U.S. population as a whole, they are nevertheless worrisome. As for handling stress, the Pulpit & Pew study found that pastors are doing a better job setting boundaries between work and personal time. Still, the average mainline pastor spent 50.8 hours a week at work, which was high in comparison with other managers and professionals.
Want to know more? Read God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, by Jackson Carroll, (W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006).

Q: Are more women enrolling in seminary?
A: Women make up about a third of all seminary students, according to data from the Association of Theological Schools. That’s a big jump from 30 years ago when women made up less than a fifth of seminary students. Hartford Seminary Sociologist Adair Lummis suggests there are several reasons the increasing numbers of women. Social attitudes have changed and women are increasingly accepted in all the professions. In addition, several mainline denominations changed their rules to allow women to be ordained. Still, seminary remains by and large a male profession. Twice as many men as women completed the Masters in Divinity degree, the most popular of the programs, in 2005, according to ATS figures.
Want to know more? Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling, by Barbara Brown Zikmund, Adair Lummis, and Patricia Mei Yin Chang, (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998) or see http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/bookshelf_book_excerpts.html#women. Also, consult the website for the Association of Theological Schools, http://www.ats.edu. Click on the 2005/06 Annual Data Tables.

Q: Are more women serving in churches today?
A: Yes, but just how many is hard to say. Some denominations, such as the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church USA keep accurate tabs on the number of women clergy. Others denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, which officially does not permit women to serve as senior pastors, do not, (even though there are small numbers of women pastors in the SBC). Not surprisingly, the United Methodist Church, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination, had the largest number of clergywomen, 9,749, or 22 percent of its ordained clergy in 2006. But sociologist Jackson Carroll said women make up a disproportionately large percentage of associate pastors, and may face unequal access to higher profile positions.
Want to know more?  Read Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling, by Barbara Brown Zikmund, Adair Lummis, and Patricia Mei Yin Chang,  (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998) or see http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/bookshelf_book_excerpts.html#women. Also, consult chapter 3 in Jackson Carroll’s God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, (W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006).  Also see What percentage of pastors are female?

Number and Percentage of Clergywomen 1977 & 2000

(From chart in Olson et. al. Women with a Mission.  (U of Alabama Press 2005.) p.8

Q: Why are women dropping out of seminary, or ministry?
A:  Schools and denominations don’t keep records on dropouts so it’s impossible to say with any accuracy how many women quit school or ministry.  But Barbara Finlay, a sociologist at Texas A&M University, suggests some women opt out of ministry during their last year of school, realizing they will face uphill challenges to better-paying positions.
Want to know more?  Read Facing the Stained Glass Ceiling: Gender in a Protestant Seminary by Barbara Finlay  (University Press of America, 2003, and Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Ministry by Dean Hoge and Jacqueline Wegner (W.B. Eerdmans, 2005).  Also see Are more or less women entering seminaries today?

Q: Is there a salary gap between men and women clergy?
A: The salary gap that once existed between men and women clergy is narrowing. Whereas in 1991, women clergy earned on average 91 percent of men’s salaries in the same position, 10 years later that disparity had all but disappeared. Still, women face unequal access to senior pastor positions, which pay more. Sociologist Jackson Carroll found that among mainline clergy in their second decade of ministry, 70 percent of men were serving medium or large churches, compared to 37 percent of women.
Want to know more? Read Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling, by Barbara Brown Zikmund, Adair Lummis, and Patricia Mei Yin Chang Also consult, chapter 3 in Jackson Carroll’s God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, (W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006).
You might also want to read Is there a clergy shortage?

Q:  Is there a relationship between church growth and youth involvement?
A:  Sociologists of religion have found a correlation between church growth and youth involvement that is consistent across different types of churches, liberal moderate and conservative. In all these churches, the greater the youth involvement, the greater the church’s growth. Specifically, 58 percent of growing churches said the level of youth involvement was high. Researchers weren’t sure what came first, youth involvement or church growth.
Want to know more? Read Findings Regarding Youth Involvement and Growth by David Roozen, at http://fact.hartsem.edu/research/fact2000/topical_article10.htm

Interested in Church Growth issues? Check out:
Do Church Growth Consultations Really Work?
What do Lay People Want in Pastors?
Does evangelism nurture church growth?

Q: What’s the definition of a megachurch, and how many are there in the United States?
A:  Megachurches are not all alike, but they do share some common features. Hartford Seminary Sociologist Scott Thumma who compiled the 2005 “Megachurches Today” survey defines a megachurch as a congregation with at least 2,000 people attending each Sunday. These churches tend to have a charismatic senior minister and an active array of social and outreach ministries seven days a week.

At latest count, there were 1,210 Protestant churches in the United States with a weekly attendance of 2,000 people or more. That’s nearly twice the number five years ago, suggesting people are receptive to this new way of worship. The average megachurch had a Sunday attendance of 3,585. But not all megachurches are mega. The survey found that only 16 percent of megachurches had 5,000 people in attendance on a given Sunday. 

Want to know more? Read a detailed description of megachurches at: http://www.hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches.html  To find out more about the number of megachurches go to: http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megastoday2005_summaryreport.html  

Q: Where are megachurches located?
A: By 2005, megachurches had become a religious phenomenon spread across the US. All but five states have congregations with more than 2,000 people in attendance on a Sunday morning, according to the 2005 “Megachurches Today” study. The four states with the greatest concentrations of megachurches were California (14 percent), Texas (13 percent), Florida (7 percent), and Georgia (6 percent). But researchers found that megachurches are becoming more popular, not only in Sunbelt states, but across the country. The following map shows the locations of all the U.S. megachurches. Each black dot represents a church, with the large black masses indicating multiple churches within an area:
Want to know more? Go to: http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megastoday2005_summaryreport.html  

Q: How many Muslims are there in the United States?
A: This is a hotly-debated issue with political overtones. There are currently several studies claiming between 1.5 and 6 million Muslims in the United States. Problem is, the U.S. Census is prohibited from asking about religious affiliation. To make up for the lack of solid numbers, different researchers have used different methodologies. A 2001 study titled “Mosque in America: A National Portrait,” reported 6 million Muslims in the United States. But Tom W. Smith of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago said those numbers were inflated and that in fact, there were 1.9 million Muslims in the United States.
The mosque study also showed there were 1,209 mosques across the country in 2001. The majority of Muslims attending mosques were immigrants or children of immigrants. Converts accounted for 30 percent of mosque-goers. South Asians, from such countries as Pakistan and India, formed the largest ethnic group among Muslims in the United States, with African-Americans and Arabs in second and third place respectively.
Want to know more? Read Mosque in America: A National Portrait, a survey released in 2001. Go to http://www.cair-net.org/mosquereport/index.html For different perspective see Estimating the Muslim Population in the United States by Tom W. Smith, http://cloud9.norc.uchicago.edu/dlib/muslm.htm Also see http://www.pluralism.org/resources/statistics/tradition.php#Islam and a listing of the Locations of Muslim center and Mosques from the Pluralism Project website

You might also want to read:
Has Interfaith activity increased since 9-11?
What do you know about your Interfaith Neighbor?
Do American Muslims Want to be Involved in Public Life?

Q. How can I find a church in a specific town?
A. While there is not complete list of churches, whether by denomation or location, there are many church locators available that will assist you in finding a church in a specific location. We have compiled a list of Links to Church Locators that can assit you in your search.