State Membership Report

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Tennessee

Denominational Groups, 2000

2,102,490 551,186 4,010 183,161 64,772 2,783,664
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 2,972 1,414,199 248.6
United Methodist Church, The Mainline Protestant 1,577 393,994 69.3
Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 1,466 216,648 38.1
Catholic Church Catholic 152 183,161 32.2
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mainline Protestant 305 67,800 11.9
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Evangelical Protestant 362 66,136 11.6
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant 37 50,003 8.8
Assemblies of God Evangelical Protestant 191 40,430 7.1
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 172 39,643 7.0
Episcopal Church Mainline Protestant 112 35,037 6.2
Cumberland Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 280 34,415 6.1
Presbyterian Church in America Evangelical Protestant 64 28,846 5.1
Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Protestant 173 28,538 5.0
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Mainline Protestant 56 28,108 4.9
Seventh-day Adventist Church Evangelical Protestant 125 27,525 4.8
National Association of Free Will Baptists Evangelical Protestant 227 26,935 4.7
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Other Theology 77 24,075 4.2
Muslim Estimate Other Theology 16 18,464 3.3
Jewish Estimate Other Theology 19 18,250 3.2
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant 57 16,883 3.0
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Mainline Protestant 49 16,239 2.9
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 13 14,095 2.5
Independent Free Will Baptists Associations Evangelical Protestant 110 11,817 2.1
Independent, Charismatic Churches Evangelical Protestant 11 9,850 1.7
Old Missionary Baptists Associations Evangelical Protestant 53 8,579 1.5
Duck River and Kindred Baptists Associations Evangelical Protestant 71 8,517 1.5
Church of God of Prophecy Evangelical Protestant 132 8,225 1.5
National Primitive Baptist Convention, USA Evangelical Protestant 87 7,811 1.4
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Protestant 70 5,291 0.9
American Baptist Churches in the USA Mainline Protestant 9 4,478 0.8
Primitive Baptists, Eastern District Association of Evangelical Protestant 30 4,420 0.8
Salvation Army, The Evangelical Protestant 17 3,546 0.6
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel Evangelical Protestant 19 3,231 0.6
International Pentecostal Holiness Church Evangelical Protestant 29 3,166 0.6
American Baptist Association, The Evangelical Protestant 21 2,986 0.5
Evangelical Free Church of America, The Evangelical Protestant 10 2,910 0.5
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox 5 2,658 0.5
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Other Theology 13 2,569 0.5
United Church of Christ Mainline Protestant 15 2,207 0.4
International Council of Community Churches Mainline Protestant 5 1,970 0.4
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Protestant 10 1,834 0.3
Baptist Missionary Association of America Evangelical Protestant 10 1,821 0.3
Wesleyan Church, The Evangelical Protestant 21 1,727 0.3
Vineyard USA Evangelical Protestant 6 1,627 0.3
Church of the Brethren Evangelical Protestant 21 1,456 0.3
Bahá'í Other Theology 15 1,414 0.3
International Churches of Christ Evangelical Protestant 4 1,261 0.2
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Evangelical Protestant 7 1,037 0.2
Pentecostal Church of God Evangelical Protestant 13 1,012 0.2
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, The Orthodox 3 1,016 0.2
Community of Christ Evangelical Protestant 8 1,047 0.2
Christian and Missionary Alliance, The Evangelical Protestant 10 886 0.2
Friends (Quakers) Mainline Protestant 12 933 0.2
Old Order Amish Church Evangelical Protestant 11 706 0.1
Free Methodist Church of North America Evangelical Protestant 11 579 0.1
Progressive Primitive Baptists Evangelical Protestant 7 453 0.1
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches Evangelical Protestant 4 305 0.1
Brethren In Christ Church Evangelical Protestant 4 268 0.1
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches Mainline Protestant 5 263 0.1
Amish; Other Groups Evangelical Protestant 6 263 0.1
Mennonite; Other Groups Evangelical Protestant 4 269 0.1
Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Etchmiadzin Orthodox 2 230 0.0
General Association of Regular Baptist Churches Evangelical Protestant 2 250 0.0
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The Evangelical Protestant 4 220 0.0
Christian Reformed Church in North America Evangelical Protestant 1 176 0.0
Old Order Mennonite Evangelical Protestant 4 171 0.0
Mennonite Church USA Evangelical Protestant 5 192 0.0
Church of God in Christ, Mennonite Evangelical Protestant 2 134 0.0
Orthodox Church in America: Territorial Dioceses Orthodox 1 106 0.0
Evangelical Covenant Church, The Evangelical Protestant 1 49 0.0
Separate Baptists in Christ Evangelical Protestant 2 37 0.0
Reformed Church in America Mainline Protestant 1 79 0.0
National Association of Congregational Christian Churches Mainline Protestant 1 78 0.0
Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection Evangelical Protestant 2 0 0.0
Reformed Mennonite Church Evangelical Protestant 1 10 0.0
Church of God General Conference Evangelical Protestant 1 25 0.0
Apostolic Christian Church of America, Inc. Evangelical Protestant 1 18 0.0
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists Evangelical Protestant 1 12 0.0
Calvary Chapel Fellowship Churches Evangelical Protestant 11 n.a. n.a.
Buddhism Other Theology 12 n.a. n.a.
Coptic Orthodox Church Orthodox 4 n.a. n.a.
Jain Other Theology 2 n.a. n.a.
Primitive Baptist Churches--Old Line Evangelical Protestant 115 n.a. n.a.
Reformed Baptist Churches Evangelical Protestant 4 n.a. n.a.
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Orthodox 1 n.a. n.a.
Hindu Other Theology 7 n.a. n.a.
Sikh Other Theology 2 n.a. n.a.
Southwide Baptist Fellowship Evangelical Protestant 43 n.a. n.a.
Totals (Unadjusted)*: 9,634 2,905,619  
Total (Adjusted)**:   3,631,518  
The population of these 95 counties (or equivalents) in 1990 was 4,877,185; in 2000 it was 5,689,283. The total population changed 16.7%. The unadjusted adherent totals of the religious groups listed above (2,905,619) include 51.1% of the total population in 2000. The adjusted total adherents (3,631,518) include 63.8% 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]