Trends in Church Membership in the United States

Abstract

American religious bodies—excepting the Church of Christ, Scientist—have officers who make public reports of the numbers of their adherents. During recent years the "latest information" available has appeared in the annual Yearbook of American Churches. Two hundred and fifty-one bodies reported 109,557,741 members, equal to 63 per cent of the estimated population in 1958, in the Yearbook for 1960. The figures from church headquarters are made public at irregular intervals and are not gathered by uniform methods. The Cen sus of Religious Bodies, which did gather figures by means of standard forms, has been discontinued. The average size of local congregations has increased 50 per cent since 1926, and church membership advances at a more rapid rate than the population. However, church statistics have many defects, and it is not known what effect the mobility of the population has had on church records and on record-keeping. Roman Catholic and Protestant bodies are reported to have now about the same numerical relation to one another as they had in the early 1900's, but since 1950 the Roman Catholics have reported the more rapid gains. One study indicates that the more conservative denominations report larger growth than those known as the more liberal. Many professional workers challenge the frequent use of extensive church statistics as evidence of the vitality of the institutions or of religious revival.