County Membership Report

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Shelby County, Tennessee

Denominational Groups, 2000

217,481 86,038 1,501 50,746 15,700 526,006
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 Adherence Rate
Advent Christian Church Evangelical Protestant 1 51 0.1
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Evangelical Protestant 6 1,176 1.4
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant 6 3,290 4.0
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant 15 7,565 9.2
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 4 499 0.6
Baptist Missionary Association of America Evangelical Protestant 4 1,025 1.2
Black Baptists Estimate Evangelical Protestant n.a. 103,916 125.8
Catholic Church Catholic 27 50,000 60.5
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant 1 83 0.1
Christian Brethren Evangelical Protestant 1 58 0.1
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant 15 10,117 12.2
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 5 1,216 1.5
Church of Christ, Scientist Other Theology 3 n.a. n.a.
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant 3 195 0.2
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant 10 1,645 2.0
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant 4 248 0.3
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology 6 2,540 3.1
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant 10 1,805 2.2
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 69 22,839 27.6
Cumberland Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 12 3,062 3.7
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant 20 10,439 12.6
Evangelical Free Church of America, The Evangelical Protestant 1 60 0.1
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant 8 2,207 2.7
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 2 3,992 4.8
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 1 52 0.1
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox 1 n.a. n.a.
Independent, Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant 9 5,150 6.2
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant 10 12,747 15.4
International Pentecostal Holiness Church Evangelical Protestant 6 727 0.9
Jewish Estimate Other Theology 5 8,417 10.2
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant 1 21 0.0
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant 10 4,781 5.8
National Association of Free Will Baptists Evangelical Protestant 5 487 0.6
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox 1 n.a. n.a.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant 30 11,667 14.1
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant 3 451 0.6
Primitive Baptists Associations Evangelical Protestant 2 142 0.2
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant 3 329 0.4
Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, USA and Canada Evangelical Protestant 1 15 0.0
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant 8 3,877 4.7
Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical Protestant 122 169,276 204.9
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology 2 694 0.8
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant 2 239 0.3
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant 69 46,357 56.1
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant 1 10 0.0
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Evangelical Protestant 1 148 0.2
Totals (Unadjusted)*: 526 493,615  

The population of this county (or equivalent) in 1990 was 826,330. The adherent totals of the religious groups listed above (493,615) include 59.7% of the total population in 1990.

Source

The 1990 data were collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and include statistics for 132 religious groups, including number of churches and adherents. Martin B. Bradley, Norman M. Green, Jr., Dale E. Jones, Mac Lynn, and Lou McNeil supervised the collection. These data originally appeared in Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1990, published by the Glenmary Research Center.

[More information on the data collection]

The adherence rate provides the number of adherents of a particular group per 1,000 population. For example, in 2000 the Episcopal Church had an adherence rate of approximately 8 (8.1) in Autauga County, Alabama. This means that 8 out of every 1,000 people in Autauga county are Episcopalian.