County Membership Report
 Maps and Reports > Select County > County Report
Search Maps & Reports:

Chester County, Pennsylvania

Denominational Groups, 2000

13,397 66,961 911 140,577 18,954 192,701
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 +1 +9,843 3830.0%
Evangelical Free Church of America, The Evangelical Protestant +2 +514 1512.0%
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant +1 +191 682.0%
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant +1 +644 215.0%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology +3 +1,201 200.0%
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology +1 +521 87.0%
Catholic Church Catholic +3 +65,049 86.0%
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The Evangelical Protestant +1 +159 77.0%
Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical Protestant +4 +345 75.0%
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant 0 +87 40.0%
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant +2 +513 40.0%
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant +1 +1,283 40.0%
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant +2 +70 26.0%
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant +7 +542 24.0%
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel Evangelical Protestant 0 +18 15.0%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant +2 +841 8.0%
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant +1 +51 0.0%
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant +1 -287 -3.0%
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant -1 -72 -14.0%
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant -1 -1,195 -15.0%
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant +1 -64 -16.0%
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant -6 -3,512 -18.0%
Church of the Brethren Evangelical Protestant -1 -298 -29.0%
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant 0 -470 -40.0%
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant 0 -190 -46.0%
Primitive Methodist Church in the USA Evangelical Protestant 0 -147 -71.0%
Conservative Baptist Association of America Evangelical Protestant +1 +40 n.a.
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant +2 +1,300 n.a.
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox +1 +335 n.a.
Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church Evangelical Protestant +1 +126 n.a.
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church Orthodox +1 +207 n.a.
Old Order Amish Church Evangelical Protestant +12 +1,128 n.a.
  Totals: +43 +78,773 +51.6%

The population of this county (or equivalent) in 1980 was 316,660; in 2000 it was 433,501. The total population changed 15.2%. The adherent totals for 1980 (153,413) represent 48.4% of the 1980 population. The adherent totals for 2000 (240,800) include 55.5% of the 2000 population. The totals represent the change in groups that reported in both 1980 and 2000 only. There is sufficient data for 32 groups to calculate 1980-2000 change. These 32 groups had 152,644 adherents in 1980 and 231,417 adherents in 2000, for a change of 51.6%

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]