Atlanta, GA MSA

Denominational Groups, 2000

954,666	448,338	5,655	271,538	145,569	2,286,432
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
Southern Baptist Convention	Evangelical Protestant	+144	+204,859	44.0%
Catholic Church	Catholic	+18	+190,971	237.0%
United Methodist Church, The	Mainline Protestant	-2	+84,296	43.0%
Jewish Estimate	Other Theology	+30	+79,243	1190.0%
Independent, Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	+17	+39,580	n.a.
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	Evangelical Protestant	+15	+37,864	196.0%
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	+20	+31,768	n.a.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	Mainline Protestant	+9	+15,953	29.0%
Seventh-day Adventist Church	Evangelical Protestant	+25	+15,352	546.0%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The	Other Theology	+37	+15,165	215.0%
Episcopal Church	Mainline Protestant	+8	+14,266	50.0%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	Mainline Protestant	+21	+12,127	89.0%
Assemblies of God	Evangelical Protestant	+20	+12,024	151.0%
Presbyterian Church in America	Evangelical Protestant	+38	+10,637	464.0%
Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+20	+7,112	53.0%
Jasper Baptist and Pleasant Valley Baptist Associations	Evangelical Protestant	+28	+6,516	n.a.
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	Mainline Protestant	+1	+5,645	62.0%
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+19	+5,094	18.0%
Wesleyan Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	+9	+3,813	n.a.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America	Orthodox	+3	+3,009	n.a.
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The	Evangelical Protestant	+13	+2,230	124.0%
New Hope Baptist Association	Evangelical Protestant	+12	+1,860	n.a.
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod	Evangelical Protestant	+8	+1,777	48.0%
Church of God of Prophecy	Evangelical Protestant	+29	+1,513	n.a.
International Pentecostal Holiness Church	Evangelical Protestant	+8	+1,507	242.0%
Church of the Nazarene	Evangelical Protestant	+6	+1,369	61.0%
Salvation Army, The	Evangelical Protestant	+4	+1,087	56.0%
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	Evangelical Protestant	+3	+1,064	572.0%
American Baptist Association, The	Evangelical Protestant	+6	+651	1302.0%
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel	Evangelical Protestant	+4	+645	2150.0%
American Baptist Churches in the USA	Mainline Protestant	+7	+544	6.0%
Evangelical Free Church of America, The	Evangelical Protestant	+2	+440	800.0%
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches	Mainline Protestant	+2	+333	92.0%
National Association of Free Will Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	+3	+306	n.a.
Pentecostal Church of God	Evangelical Protestant	+4	+294	n.a.
Reformed Church in America	Mainline Protestant	+1	+245	n.a.
Christian Reformed Church in North America	Evangelical Protestant	+4	+240	n.a.
Free Methodist Church of North America	Evangelical Protestant	+1	+180	n.a.
Congregational Christian Churches, Additional (not part of any national CCC body)	Mainline Protestant	+1	+145	n.a.
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses	Orthodox	+1	+142	n.a.
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	+1	+141	142.0%
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)	Evangelical Protestant	+5	+111	8.0%
Brethren In Christ Church	Evangelical Protestant	+2	+99	n.a.
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations	Other Theology	+2	+97	7.0%
United Church of Christ	Mainline Protestant	+1	+96	5.0%
Friends (Quakers)	Mainline Protestant	+1	+85	113.0%
International Pentecostal Church of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	+2	+55	n.a.
Moravian Church in America--Southern Province	Mainline Protestant	0	+30	20.0%
Cumberland Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	+4	-33	-11.0%
National Association of Congregational Christian Churches	Mainline Protestant	0	-42	-32.0%
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	+4	-526	-32.0%
	Totals:	+621	+811,979	+84.7%

The population of these 20 counties (or equivalents) in 1980 was 2,233,324; in 2000 it was 4,112,198. The total population changed 38.9%. The adherent totals for 1980 (962,524) represent 43.1% of the 1980 population. The adherent totals for 2000 (1,825,766) include 44.4% of the 2000 population. The totals represent the change in groups that reported in both 1980 and 2000 only. There is sufficient data for 51 groups to calculate 1980-2000 change. These 51 groups had 959,104 adherents in 1980 and 1,771,083 adherents in 2000, for a change of 84.7%

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]