State Membership Report
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Arkansas

Denominational Groups, 2000

1,153,527 236,596 606 115,967 20,263 1,146,441
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
National Association of Free Will Baptists Evangelical Protestant +209 +26,268 n.a.
Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical Protestant +130 +142,322 27.0%
Pentecostal Church of God Evangelical Protestant +124 +10,285 n.a.
American Baptist Association, The Evangelical Protestant +36 +27,388 31.0%
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant +33 +1,201 n.a.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology +18 +7,573 103.0%
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant +14 +1,547 30.0%
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant +13 +1,442 11.0%
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant +12 +2,134 30.0%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant +9 +3,152 115.0%
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant +8 +4,750 n.a.
Catholic Church Catholic +8 +59,056 104.0%
Churches of God, General Conference Evangelical Protestant +8 +422 n.a.
Independent, Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant +7 +15,374 n.a.
International Pentecostal Holiness Church Evangelical Protestant +6 +344 79.0%
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant +6 +633 42.0%
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Evangelical Protestant +5 +498 647.0%
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel Evangelical Protestant +5 +669 110.0%
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant +4 +4,279 85.0%
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant +4 +2,291 16.0%
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant +3 +256 n.a.
Church of God in Christ, Mennonite Evangelical Protestant +2 +346 n.a.
Evangelical Free Church of America, The Evangelical Protestant +2 +560 622.0%
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox +2 +483 n.a.
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches Mainline Protestant +2 +8 7.0%
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology +2 +218 63.0%
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant +1 -4,516 -76.0%
Jewish Estimate Other Theology +1 -228 -12.0%
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant +1 -2,834 -17.0%
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant +1 +162 n.a.
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox +1 +45 n.a.
Church of the Brethren Evangelical Protestant +1 -24 -30.0%
Christian Union Evangelical Protestant +1 +31 74.0%
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches Evangelical Protestant 0 +46 131.0%
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant 0 -36 -12.0%
Church of God General Conference Evangelical Protestant 0 -126 -38.0%
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 0 -57 -50.0%
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant 0 +255 46.0%
Mennonite Brethren Churches, U.S. Conference of Evangelical Protestant 0 -36 -29.0%
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant 0 -155 -51.0%
Free Methodist Church of North America Evangelical Protestant -1 -55 -61.0%
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant -1 -336 -53.0%
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant -7 +13,632 26.0%
Cumberland Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant -7 -1,273 -24.0%
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant -9 -4,329 -5.0%
Baptist Missionary Association of America Evangelical Protestant -15 +16,818 24.0%
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant -19 -1,544 -12.0%
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant -122 -5,295 -17.0%
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant -128 -35,143 -16.0%
  Totals: +370 +288,501 +23.4%

The population of these 75 counties (or equivalents) in 1980 was 2,378,488; in 2000 it was 2,673,400. The total population changed 13.7%. The adherent totals for 1980 (1,237,489) represent 52.0% of the 1980 population. The adherent totals for 2000 (1,526,959) include 57.1% of the 2000 population. There is sufficient data for 49 groups to calculate 1980-2000 change. These 49 groups had 1,231,872 adherents in 1980 and 1,520,373 adherents in 2000, for a change of 23.4%

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]