Metro Area Membership Report
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Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC MSA

Denominational Groups, 2000

243,056 173,226 4,426 94,357 33,342 1,021,134
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 217 147,338 93.9
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant 143 81,616 52.0
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant 59 23,542 15.0
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant 50 23,129 14.7
Catholic Church Catholic 46 94,357 60.1
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant 44 11,604 7.4
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 38 10,805 6.9
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant 34 9,518 6.1
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant 25 18,538 11.8
International Pentecostal Holiness Church Evangelical Protestant 25 3,860 2.5
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant 23 9,535 6.1
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 21 3,024 1.9
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant 19 5,976 3.8
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology 19 7,774 5.0
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant 16 2,937 1.9
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant 15 3,900 2.5
Jewish Estimate Other Theology 13 21,400 13.6
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant 11 10,875 6.9
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 11 1,252 0.8
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant 11 1,747 1.1
National Association of Free Will Baptists Evangelical Protestant 11 1,156 0.7
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant 11 2,450 1.6
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant 10 3,600 2.3
Mennonite Church USA Evangelical Protestant 9 3,204 2.0
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant 9 466 0.3
Independent, Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant 9 25,400 16.2
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant 8 566 0.4
Muslim Estimate Other Theology 5 2,739 1.8
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant 5 611 0.4
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant 5 2,209 1.4
Bahá'í Other Theology 5 776 0.5
Vineyard USA Evangelical Protestant 5 1,378 0.9
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 4 1,992 1.3
Southwide Baptist Fellowship Evangelical Protestant 4 n.a. n.a.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox 3 2,901 1.9
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Evangelical Protestant 3 435 0.3
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology 3 653 0.4
Calvary Chapel Fellowship Churches Evangelical Protestant 3 n.a. n.a.
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel Evangelical Protestant 3 416 0.3
Buddhism Other Theology 3 n.a. n.a.
Church of the Brethren Evangelical Protestant 2 355 0.2
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant 2 320 0.2
Evangelical Free Church of America, The Evangelical Protestant 2 316 0.2
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches Mainline Protestant 2 110 0.1
Community of Christ Evangelical Protestant 2 201 0.1
Reformed Baptist Churches Evangelical Protestant 2 n.a. n.a.
International Pentecostal Church of Christ Evangelical Protestant 2 280 0.2
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Orthodox 1 n.a. n.a.
Baptist Missionary Association of America Evangelical Protestant 1 218 0.1
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, The Orthodox 1 56 0.0
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches Evangelical Protestant 1 79 0.1
Hindu Other Theology 1 n.a. n.a.
Conservative Mennonite Conference Evangelical Protestant 1 55 0.0
Conservative Congregational Christian Conference Evangelical Protestant 1 544 0.4
Primitive Baptist Churches--Old Line Evangelical Protestant 1 n.a. n.a.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Vasiloupulis Orthodox 1 1,400 0.9
International Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 1 509 0.3
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox 1 69 0.0
Christian Reformed Church in North America Evangelical Protestant 1 86 0.1
Conservative Baptist Association of America Evangelical Protestant 1 130 0.1
Totals (Unadjusted)*: 985 548,407  
Total (Adjusted)**:   781,471  
The population of these 15 counties (or equivalents) in 1990 was 1,443,244; in 2000 it was 1,569,541. The total population changed 8.8%. The unadjusted adherent totals of the religious groups listed above (548,407) include 34.9% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (781,471) include 49.8% 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 [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]