U.S. Membership Report

United States

Denominational Groups, 2000

39,994,852	26,091,321	989,106	62,035,042	12,254,099	140,057,419
Evangelical Protestant	Mainline Protestant	Orthodox	Catholic	Other	Unclaimed

Congregational "adherents" include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services. The historically African American denominations are not included in the 2000 congregation and membership totals. Many are also missing in 1990 and most historically African American denominations are missing in the 1980 reports.
[More information on the data sources]

Reports

Religious Bodies	Theology	Congregations	Adherents	% Change
Jewish Estimate	Other Theology	+2,246	+5,357,222	683.0%
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA	Orthodox	+83	+30,506	600.0%
Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Cilicia	Orthodox	+17	+36,160	355.0%
Evangelical Free Church of America, The	Evangelical Protestant	+728	+215,109	305.0%
Presbyterian Church in America	Evangelical Protestant	+772	+207,073	191.0%
Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, The	Evangelical Protestant	+108	+17,833	125.0%
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel	Evangelical Protestant	+1,045	+188,668	119.0%
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	+154	+13,920	112.0%
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	Evangelical Protestant	+761	+506,027	108.0%
Church of God in Christ, Mennonite	Evangelical Protestant	+38	+7,906	106.0%
International Pentecostal Holiness Church	Evangelical Protestant	+518	+123,329	104.0%
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The	Evangelical Protestant	+665	+163,145	97.0%
Conservative Congregational Christian Conference	Evangelical Protestant	+140	+24,904	96.0%
Mennonite Brethren Churches, U.S. Conference of	Evangelical Protestant	+68	+11,863	73.0%
Evangelical Covenant Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	+161	+63,841	72.0%
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches	Evangelical Protestant	+29	+3,594	62.0%
Baptist General Conference	Evangelical Protestant	+197	+90,644	61.0%
Missionary Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	+26	+18,612	60.0%
Assemblies of God	Evangelical Protestant	+2,498	+955,497	60.0%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The	Other Theology	+4,882	+1,557,003	58.0%
Apostolic Christian Churches (Nazarean)	Evangelical Protestant	+9	+1,514	53.0%
Brethren In Christ Church	Evangelical Protestant	+58	+7,866	45.0%
Evangelical Mennonite Church	Evangelical Protestant	+13	+2,061	45.0%
Protestant Reformed Churches in America	Evangelical Protestant	+9	+1,731	42.0%
Seventh-day Adventist Church	Evangelical Protestant	+935	+268,830	41.0%
Catholic Church	Catholic	-486	+14,961,759	32.0%
American Baptist Association, The	Evangelical Protestant	+328	+65,210	30.0%
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+282	+320,233	29.0%
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	+85	+8,543	27.0%
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches	Mainline Protestant	+111	+4,961	27.0%
Southern Baptist Convention	Evangelical Protestant	+6,061	+3,668,418	23.0%
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations	Other Theology	+114	+28,612	19.0%
Christian Reformed Church in North America	Evangelical Protestant	+128	+39,100	19.0%
Salvation Army, The	Evangelical Protestant	+274	+59,049	17.0%
North American Baptist Conference	Evangelical Protestant	+47	+8,454	16.0%
Old Order Amish Church	Evangelical Protestant	+765	+12,878	15.0%
Baptist Missionary Association of America	Evangelical Protestant	-72	+24,713	9.0%
Separate Baptists in Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+10	+870	9.0%
Christian Union	Evangelical Protestant	+7	+347	5.0%
Church of the Nazarene	Evangelical Protestant	+405	+27,030	3.0%
Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+394	+51,209	3.0%
Conservative Baptist Association of America	Evangelical Protestant	+208	+3,681	2.0%
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	Evangelical Protestant	+168	+1,464	0.0%
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod	Evangelical Protestant	+424	-96,798	-4.0%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	Mainline Protestant	-52	-252,733	-5.0%
Moravian Church in America--Southern Province	Mainline Protestant	+7	-1,188	-6.0%
American Baptist Churches in the USA	Mainline Protestant	-187	-143,262	-8.0%
Reformed Church in America	Mainline Protestant	+17	-33,152	-9.0%
United Methodist Church, The	Mainline Protestant	-2,688	-1,172,612	-10.0%
Brethren Church, The (Ashland, Ohio)	Evangelical Protestant	+1	-2,024	-11.0%
Cumberland Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	-49	-10,388	-12.0%
Friends (Quakers)	Mainline Protestant	+311	-17,772	-14.0%
Church of God General Conference	Evangelical Protestant	+15	-857	-15.0%
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	Mainline Protestant	-906	-185,930	-15.0%
Church of the Brethren	Evangelical Protestant	+42	-35,079	-17.0%
Episcopal Church	Mainline Protestant	+105	-486,972	-17.0%
United Church of Christ	Mainline Protestant	-465	-384,164	-18.0%
Moravian Church in America--Northern Province	Mainline Protestant	-1	-6,626	-20.0%
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	Mainline Protestant	-1,509	-855,006	-21.0%
National Association of Congregational Christian Churches	Mainline Protestant	+77	-28,677	-25.0%
Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches	Evangelical Protestant	+2	-899	-33.0%
Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch	Orthodox	+10	-10,013	-42.0%
Free Methodist Church of North America	Evangelical Protestant	-3	-103,053	-52.0%
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)	Evangelical Protestant	+116	-286,307	-54.0%
Primitive Methodist Church in the USA	Evangelical Protestant	-1	-7,144	-60.0%
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America	Orthodox	+518	+427,659	n.a.
Church of God of Prophecy	Evangelical Protestant	+1,858	+91,106	n.a.
Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection	Evangelical Protestant	+115	+1,864	n.a.
Apostolic Christian Church of America, Inc.	Evangelical Protestant	+84	+23,980	n.a.
Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, North American Dioceses	Orthodox	+18	+35,118	n.a.
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church	Orthodox	+75	+20,000	n.a.
Midwest Congregational Christian Fellowship	Evangelical Protestant	+29	+1,705	n.a.
Wesleyan Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	+1,657	+381,459	n.a.
Wayne Trail Missionary Baptist Association	Evangelical Protestant	+13	+2,756	n.a.
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	+4	+65	n.a.
Reformed Church in the United States	Evangelical Protestant	+38	+4,236	n.a.
Pentecostal Church of God	Evangelical Protestant	+1,173	+101,921	n.a.
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses	Orthodox	+370	+77,110	n.a.
Orthodox Church in America: Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America	Orthodox	+56	+17,201	n.a.
Orthodox Church in America: Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese	Orthodox	+12	+5,775	n.a.
Old Order River Brethren	Evangelical Protestant	+5	+540	n.a.
Old Missionary Baptists Associations	Evangelical Protestant	+302	+49,870	n.a.
New Hope Baptist Association	Evangelical Protestant	+20	+2,772	n.a.
Netherlands Reformed Congregations	Evangelical Protestant	+15	+4,442	n.a.
Fundamental Methodist Conference, Inc.	Evangelical Protestant	+13	+1,009	n.a.
Moravian Church in America--Alaska Province	Mainline Protestant	+24	+2,562	n.a.
Churches of God, General Conference	Evangelical Protestant	+336	+42,204	n.a.
Jasper Baptist and Pleasant Valley Baptist Associations	Evangelical Protestant	+31	+7,078	n.a.
Interstate & Foreign Landmark Missionary Baptists Association	Evangelical Protestant	+121	+16,127	n.a.
International Pentecostal Church of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+67	+5,453	n.a.
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	+1,084	+1,116,769	n.a.
Independent, Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	+621	+935,168	n.a.
Hutterian Brethren	Evangelical Protestant	+123	+12,300	n.a.
General Six Principle Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	+1	+25	n.a.
Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America	Orthodox	+2	+395	n.a.
Evangelical Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	+179	+80,207	n.a.
Enterprise Baptists Association	Evangelical Protestant	+65	+5,289	n.a.
Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church	Evangelical Protestant	+49	+4,384	n.a.
Duck River and Kindred Baptists Associations	Evangelical Protestant	+99	+12,542	n.a.
Congregational Christian Churches, Additional (not part of any national CCC body)	Mainline Protestant	+104	+17,821	n.a.
National Association of Free Will Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	+2,466	+254,170	n.a.
	Totals:	+32,002	+28,803,815	+26.3%

The population of the United States in 1980 was 225,011,986; in 2000 it was 281,421,839. The total population changed 13.2%. The adherent totals for 1980 (110,718,180) represent 49.2% of the 1980 population. The adherent totals for 2000 (141,364,420) include 50.2% of the 2000 population. There is sufficient data for 101 groups to calculate 1980-2000 change. These 101 groups had 109,362,507 adherents in 1980 and 138,166,322 adherents in 2000, for a change of 26.3%

Sources

The 2000 data were collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and includes statistics for 149 religious groups, including number of churches and adherents. Dale E. Jones, Sherri Doty, Clifford Grammich, James E. Horsch, Richard Houseal, Mac Lynn, John P. Marcum, Kenneth M. Sanchagrin and Richard H. Taylor supervised the collection. These data originally appeared in Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States, 2000, published by the Glenmary Research Center.

The 1980 data were collected by the Glenmary Research Center and include statistics for 111 Judeo-Christian church bodies, including number of churches and adherents. Bernard Quinn, Herman Anderson, Martin Bradley, Paul Goetting and Peggy Shriver supervised the collection. These data originally appeared in Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1980, published by the Glenmary Research Center.

[More information on these data sources]