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^†
Southern Baptist Convention	Evangelical Protestant	129	151,377	168.7
Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	70	20,808	23.2
United Methodist Church, The	Mainline Protestant	65	48,382	53.9
Catholic Church	Catholic	28	50,746	56.5
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	Mainline Protestant	28	10,645	11.9
Assemblies of God	Evangelical Protestant	18	6,587	7.3
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	Mainline Protestant	13	17,410	19.4
Church of the Nazarene	Evangelical Protestant	13	1,664	1.9
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod	Evangelical Protestant	12	4,803	5.4
Cumberland Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	12	2,043	2.3
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The	Other Theology	10	3,009	3.4
Episcopal Church	Mainline Protestant	10	4,122	4.6
Seventh-day Adventist Church	Evangelical Protestant	9	4,033	4.5
American Baptist Association, The	Evangelical Protestant	8	1,663	1.9
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	8	2,807	3.1
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	Mainline Protestant	6	1,677	1.9
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	Evangelical Protestant	6	901	1.0
Jewish Estimate	Other Theology	6	8,500	9.5
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	6	2,152	2.4
International Pentecostal Holiness Church	Evangelical Protestant	5	789	0.9
American Baptist Churches in the USA	Mainline Protestant	5	3,138	3.5
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)	Evangelical Protestant	5	196	0.2
Primitive Baptist Churches--Old Line	Evangelical Protestant	5	n.a.	n.a.
Presbyterian Church in America	Evangelical Protestant	5	2,830	3.2
Buddhism	Other Theology	4	n.a.	n.a.
Evangelical Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	4	8,670	9.7
Independent, Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	3	2,850	3.2
Church of God of Prophecy	Evangelical Protestant	3	198	0.2
Baptist Missionary Association of America	Evangelical Protestant	3	895	1.0
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations	Other Theology	3	802	0.9
Salvation Army, The	Evangelical Protestant	3	542	0.6
Muslim Estimate	Other Theology	3	3,200	3.6
United Church of Christ	Mainline Protestant	2	568	0.6
Evangelical Free Church of America, The	Evangelical Protestant	2	120	0.1
Hindu	Other Theology	2	n.a.	n.a.
Pentecostal Church of God	Evangelical Protestant	2	92	0.1
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	2	360	0.4
Calvary Chapel Fellowship Churches	Evangelical Protestant	2	n.a.	n.a.
Bahá'í	Other Theology	2	189	0.2
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The	Evangelical Protestant	2	64	0.1
Old Missionary Baptists Associations	Evangelical Protestant	2	96	0.1
National Association of Free Will Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	2	250	0.3
Wesleyan Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	1	54	0.1
Vineyard USA	Evangelical Protestant	1	167	0.2
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches	Mainline Protestant	1	14	0.0
Southwide Baptist Fellowship	Evangelical Protestant	1	n.a.	n.a.
Community of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	1	142	0.2
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America	Orthodox	1	993	1.1
Coptic Orthodox Church	Orthodox	1	n.a.	n.a.
Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Etchmiadzin	Orthodox	1	80	0.1
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	Evangelical Protestant	1	168	0.2
Friends (Quakers)	Mainline Protestant	1	82	0.1
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, The	Orthodox	1	428	0.5
International Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	1	160	0.2
Jain	Other Theology	1	n.a.	n.a.
	*Totals (Unadjusted)^:**	541	371,466
	Total (Adjusted)^:**		634,713

The population of this county (or equivalent) in 1990 was 826,330; in 2000 it was 897,472. The total population changed 8.6%. The unadjusted adherent totals of the religious groups listed above (371,466) include 41.4% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (634,713) include 70.7% of the population.

Source

^*The “Unadjusted Totals” come from the 1990 and 2000 data collected by representatives of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). While quite comprehensive, this data excludes most of the historically African-American denominations and some other major groups. As a result, these numbers will be an underestimate of the total adherence rate, particularly in areas with a large African-American population. The 2000 data included 149 religious groups and the final results are published in Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Copyright © 2002, All rights reserved. The 1990 data included 132 groups and the final results are published in Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1990 Copyright © 1990, All rights reserved. Published by Glenmary Research Center, 1312 Fifth Ave., North, Nashville, TN 37208. www.glenmary.org/grc [More information on the data collection]

^**The “Adjusted Totals” include all adherents in the denominations counted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and estimates adherent totals for the historically African-American denominations and other religious groups not listed in the ASARB totals. An article by Roger Finke and Christopher P. Scheitle (2005) reviews how these estimates were computed.

^†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.

[More information on the data source]