South Carolina

Denominational Groups, 2000

1,179,544	531,743	4,342	136,719	56,290	2,103,374
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	1,878	928,341	231.4
United Methodist Church, The	Mainline Protestant	1,047	302,528	75.4
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	Mainline Protestant	325	103,883	25.9
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	Evangelical Protestant	297	56,612	14.1
International Pentecostal Holiness Church	Evangelical Protestant	249	33,820	8.4
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	Mainline Protestant	167	61,380	15.3
Episcopal Church	Mainline Protestant	138	52,486	13.1
Church of God of Prophecy	Evangelical Protestant	130	5,763	1.4
National Association of Free Will Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	123	7,583	1.9
Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	118	13,091	3.3
Catholic Church	Catholic	118	136,719	34.1
Assemblies of God	Evangelical Protestant	112	18,219	4.5
Presbyterian Church in America	Evangelical Protestant	98	23,313	5.8
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	69	14,659	3.7
Wesleyan Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	67	9,081	2.3
Church of the Nazarene	Evangelical Protestant	64	12,824	3.2
Seventh-day Adventist Church	Evangelical Protestant	57	9,187	2.3
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The	Other Theology	54	20,424	5.1
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)	Evangelical Protestant	45	2,856	0.7
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	Mainline Protestant	40	6,613	1.7
Bahá'í	Other Theology	33	17,586	4.4
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	31	4,567	1.1
Southwide Baptist Fellowship	Evangelical Protestant	27	n.a.	n.a.
Salvation Army, The	Evangelical Protestant	18	2,930	0.7
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	16	11,435	2.9
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod	Evangelical Protestant	16	3,440	0.9
Jewish Estimate	Other Theology	15	11,000	2.7
Muslim Estimate	Other Theology	15	5,761	1.4
Independent, Charismatic Churches	Evangelical Protestant	12	13,200	3.3
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The	Evangelical Protestant	12	1,362	0.3
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel	Evangelical Protestant	11	1,136	0.3
Primitive Baptist Churches--Old Line	Evangelical Protestant	10	n.a.	n.a.
American Baptist Association, The	Evangelical Protestant	9	832	0.2
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations	Other Theology	9	1,519	0.4
Calvary Chapel Fellowship Churches	Evangelical Protestant	8	n.a.	n.a.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America	Orthodox	7	3,867	1.0
Mennonite; Other Groups	Evangelical Protestant	6	510	0.1
Church of God General Conference	Evangelical Protestant	5	636	0.2
Evangelical Presbyterian Church	Evangelical Protestant	5	783	0.2
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, The	Orthodox	5	296	0.1
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	Evangelical Protestant	4	336	0.1
American Baptist Churches in the USA	Mainline Protestant	4	2,902	0.7
Buddhism	Other Theology	4	n.a.	n.a.
Vineyard USA	Evangelical Protestant	4	645	0.2
Community of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	3	258	0.1
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches	Evangelical Protestant	3	270	0.1
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches	Mainline Protestant	3	206	0.1
Friends (Quakers)	Mainline Protestant	3	166	0.0
Hindu	Other Theology	3	n.a.	n.a.
Original Free Will Baptists	Evangelical Protestant	3	191	0.1
International Churches of Christ	Evangelical Protestant	3	967	0.2
Mennonite Church USA	Evangelical Protestant	2	71	0.0
United Church of Christ	Mainline Protestant	2	497	0.1
Reformed Baptist Churches	Evangelical Protestant	2	n.a.	n.a.
Church of the Brethren	Evangelical Protestant	2	231	0.1
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses	Orthodox	2	179	0.0
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia	Orthodox	1	n.a.	n.a.
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The	Evangelical Protestant	1	35	0.0
Free Methodist Church of North America	Evangelical Protestant	1	51	0.0
New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches and other Fundamental Baptist Associations/Fellowships	Evangelical Protestant	1	56	0.0
Conservative Mennonite Conference	Evangelical Protestant	1	31	0.0
Conservative Baptist Association of America	Evangelical Protestant	1	100	0.0
Evangelical Free Church of America, The	Evangelical Protestant	1	100	0.0
Independent Free Will Baptists Associations	Evangelical Protestant	1	22	0.0
International Council of Community Churches	Mainline Protestant	1	1,082	0.3
	*Totals (Unadjusted)^:**	5,522	1,908,638
	Total (Adjusted)^:**		2,678,847

The population of these 46 counties (or equivalents) in 1990 was 3,486,703; in 2000 it was 4,012,012. The total population changed 15.1%. The unadjusted adherent totals of the religious groups listed above (1,908,638) include 47.6% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (2,678,847) include 66.8% 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/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.

[More information on the data source]