Metro Area Membership Report

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Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY MSA

Denominational Groups, 2000

63,225 109,219 5,879 622,786 29,391 339,611
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
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant -10 -3,096 -21.0%
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church Orthodox +1 +207 n.a.
Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Cilicia Orthodox 0 +93 198.0%
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant +7 +5,525 95.0%
Brethren In Christ Church Evangelical Protestant 0 -104 -79.0%
Catholic Church Catholic -12 +13,927 2.0%
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant +2 +559 55.0%
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant +1 -171 -8.0%
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 0 +95 19.0%
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant -1 -529 -69.0%
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant 0 +485 224.0%
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant +1 +101 n.a.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology +1 +855 56.0%
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant +4 +182 28.0%
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 0 +20 2.0%
Conservative Baptist Association of America Evangelical Protestant 0 -195 -38.0%
Conservative Congregational Christian Conference Evangelical Protestant +1 -32 -15.0%
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant -2 -9,113 -39.0%
Evangelical Covenant Church, The Evangelical Protestant 0 +28 30.0%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant -9 -7,055 -23.0%
Free Methodist Church of North America Evangelical Protestant -6 -3,665 -81.0%
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 0 -33 -12.0%
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox +1 +2,313 n.a.
Independent, Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant +1 +450 n.a.
Jewish Estimate Other Theology +10 +12,158 152.0%
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant -3 -4,540 -18.0%
North American Baptist Conference Evangelical Protestant -1 +48 6.0%
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox +3 +353 n.a.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant -5 -13,237 -44.0%
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant -4 -2,134 -62.0%
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant -1 +511 39.0%
Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical Protestant +7 +151 10.0%
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA Orthodox 0 +135 82.0%
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology 0 -56 -5.0%
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant -3 -5,941 -30.0%
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant -9 -9,117 -26.0%
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant +12 +15,082 n.a.
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Evangelical Protestant +1 +112 n.a.
  Totals: -13 -5,628 -.7%

The population of these 2 counties (or equivalents) in 1980 was 1,242,826; in 2000 it was 1,170,111. The total population changed -1.6%. The adherent totals for 1980 (840,047) represent 67.6% of the 1980 population. The adherent totals for 2000 (830,500) include 71.0% of the 2000 population. The totals represent the change in groups that reported in both 1980 and 2000 only. There is sufficient data for 38 groups to calculate 1980-2000 change. These 38 groups had 824,504 adherents in 1980 and 818,876 adherents in 2000, for a change of -.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]