Faith Communities Today Survey (FACT) 2010, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Faith Communities Today 2010 national survey brings together 26 individual surveys of congregations. Twenty-four were conducted by or for partner denominations and faith groups, representing 32 of the country's largest denominations and traditions. The common core questionnaire of the survey replicates more than 150 questions from the 2000, 2005 and 2008 surveys, plus a special section on the 2008 recession. This dataset contains the FACT 2010 data from the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Data File

Cases: 706
Variables: 259
Weight Variable: None

Data Collection

Date Collected: 2010

Original Survey (Instrument)

Original Survey

Funded By

The Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Collection Procedures

Each sampled congregation was mailed a printed questionnaire with a cover letter and postage-paid reply envelope in a Research Services envelope addressed to the "Pastor or Clerk of Session," on April 14, 2010. (The session is the governing body of a PC(USA) congregation.) The questionnaire was titled "2010 Survey of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Congregations."

As necessary, congregations that did not respond received a reminder postcard, mailed on May 11, 2010; a second reminder with a cover letter, reply envelope, and another printed copy of the questionnaire, mailed on May 27, 2010; and a second reminder postcard, mailed on June 28, 2010.

Congregations were also given the option to complete a web version of the questionnaire. The address of the web survey was included in the original cover letter and in all reminders.

Sampling Procedures

Using SPSS and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) official records, Research Services drew a systematic sample of 1,190 PC(USA) congregations. Research Services listed all congregations in ascending membership order, randomly selected a number between one and nine, and selected the congregation associated with that number and then every ninth congregation. There were 10,657 congregations altogether at that time.

Three in five congregations (60 percent) completed the questionnaire.

Principal Investigators

Perry Chang, Associate for Survey Research, PC(USA) Research Services