State Membership Report
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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.
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Reports


Religious Bodies Theology Congregations Adherents % Change
Southern Baptist Convention Evangelical Protestant +97 +33,951 3.8%
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant +30 +12,190 27.4%
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant +7 +621 5.1%
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant +7 +230 1.8%
Independent, Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant +7 +9,300 238.5%
International Pentecostal Holiness Church Evangelical Protestant +7 +8,708 34.7%
National Association of Free Will Baptists Evangelical Protestant +6 -10,206 -57.4%
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant +6 +992 12.1%
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant +5 +35 0.2%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology +5 +3,528 20.9%
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant +3 -214 -7.0%
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant +3 +3,831 7.9%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant +3 -109 -0.2%
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant +3 +3,326 16.6%
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant +2 +657 16.8%
Church of God General Conference Evangelical Protestant +2 +216 51.4%
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel Evangelical Protestant +2 +382 50.7%
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant +2 +1,304 80.2%
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant +1 +1,311 82.4%
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches Evangelical Protestant +1 +64 31.1%
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant +1 +441 47.9%
Church of the Brethren Evangelical Protestant +1 +171 285.0%
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant +1 +133 20.5%
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox +1 n.a. n.a.
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant +1 +414 13.7%
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox +1 n.a. n.a.
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology +1 +290 23.6%
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Evangelical Protestant +1 +103 44.2%
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 0 +77 86.5%
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant 0 +262 111.5%
Conservative Baptist Association of America Evangelical Protestant -1 n.a. n.a.
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant -1 +1,405 18.3%
Catholic Church Catholic -2 +57,951 73.6%
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant -3 +2,174 13.5%
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant -4 -4,215 -26.9%
Jewish Estimate Other Theology -5 +2,442 28.5%
Mennonite Church USA Evangelical Protestant -5 -471 -86.9%
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant -5 +10,169 10.9%
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant -12 +655 11.0%
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant -20 -416 -6.7%
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant -27 -6,387 -2.1%
  Totals: +122 +135,315 +7.8%

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 adherent totals for 1990 (2,157,828) represent 61.9% of the 1990 population. The adherent totals for 2000 (1,908,638) include 47.6% of the 2000 population. There is sufficient data for 38 groups to calculate 1990-2000 change. These 38 groups had 1,740,548 adherents in 1990 and 1,875,863 adherents in 2000, for a change of 7.8%

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 1990 data were collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and include statistics for 132 religious groups, including number of churches and adherents. Martin B. Bradley, Norman M. Green, Jr., Dale E. Jones, Mac Lynn, and Lou McNeil supervised the collection. These data originally appeared in Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1990, published by the Glenmary Research Center.

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