Metro Area Membership Report

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Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir, NC MSA

Denominational Groups, 2000

143,129 57,427   6,499 2,092 132,704
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.
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Reports


Religious Bodies Theology Congregations Adherents Adherence Rate
Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical Protestant 256 119,248 348.8
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant 96 28,460 83.3
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant 40 16,152 47.3
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant 14 8,844 25.9
Catholic Church Catholic 5 6,499 19.0
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant 19 5,839 17.1
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant 19 3,277 9.6
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant 11 3,112 9.1
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant 16 2,304 6.7
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant 8 2,294 6.7
International Pentecostal Holiness Church Evangelical Protestant 9 1,856 5.4
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology 5 1,791 5.2
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant 2 1,278 3.7
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant 7 1,169 3.4
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant 8 1,047 3.1
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant 6 1,044 3.1
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 7 822 2.4
National Association of Free Will Baptists Evangelical Protestant 6 770 2.3
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant 1 734 2.2
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 2 465 1.4
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 4 360 1.1
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant 3 310 0.9
Mennonite Brethren Churches, U.S. Conference of Evangelical Protestant 3 173 0.5
Mennonite Church USA Evangelical Protestant 2 161 0.5
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant 3 153 0.5
Bahá'í Other Theology 0 139 0.4
Moravian Church in America--Southern Province Mainline Protestant 1 130 0.4
Jewish Estimate Other Theology 1 110 0.3
Church of God General Conference Evangelical Protestant 1 106 0.3
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant 2 93 0.3
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 1 79 0.2
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The Evangelical Protestant 2 76 0.2
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant 1 61 0.2
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant 1 59 0.2
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology 1 52 0.2
Evangelical Covenant Church, The Evangelical Protestant 1 47 0.1
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches Mainline Protestant 1 22 0.1
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel Evangelical Protestant 1 11 0.0
Buddhism Other Theology 1 n.a. n.a.
Primitive Baptist Churches--Old Line Evangelical Protestant 2 n.a. n.a.
Southwide Baptist Fellowship Evangelical Protestant 1 n.a. n.a.
Totals (Unadjusted)*: 570 209,147  
Total (Adjusted)**:   242,524  
The population of these 4 counties (or equivalents) in 1990 was 292,409; in 2000 it was 341,851. The total population changed 16.9%. The unadjusted adherent totals of the religious groups listed above (209,147) include 61.2% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (242,524) include 70.9% 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.

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