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Q: American churches ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: American churches
Category: Relationships and Society > Religion
Asked by: nonac-ga
List Price: $20.00
Posted: 30 May 2003 11:34 PDT
Expires: 29 Jun 2003 11:34 PDT
Question ID: 210789
I have a few questions to lump together here.

How many churches are there in America?  In terms of attendance, how
many of those churches are >1000, 250-1000 and <250?  Those are just
approximate numbers, any breakdown of small, medium and large will do
for me.

How many American churches have a broadband internet connection to the
church offices?

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 30 May 2003 12:11 PDT
Must the figures be "in terms of attendance"? Data on church
membership is much easier to find than data on attendance (which is
usually much lower than membership, since many members attend
infrequently.)

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 30 May 2003 12:16 PDT
Another question: can you specify how we should define "churches" for
the purpose of this research? Should synagogues, mosques, and temples
be considered, or do you want data only on Christian churches?

Clarification of Question by nonac-ga on 31 May 2003 13:55 PDT
I will accept membership instead of attendance.  That would actually
suit my purposes better than attendance, I just worded the question
poorly.

As far as the type of church, I am only interested Christian churches.

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 31 May 2003 14:18 PDT
You may want to consider "unbundling" your question. As it now stands,
unless a Researcher can provide both the church-membership data and
the statistics on broadband connection, your question cannot be
answered.

I have spent several hours trying to locate the broadband info, and
have been unsuccessful.

Clarification of Question by nonac-ga on 31 May 2003 20:22 PDT
Consider the broadband question dropped.  Just the church membership
information will be worth it to me.  Sorry if you spent so much time
looking for the broadband information.  I certainly didn't mean for it
to be a red herring.
Answer  
Subject: Re: American churches
Answered By: pinkfreud-ga on 31 May 2003 21:29 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Here's an interesting article that gives an estimate of 300,000 to
400,000 churches, with the finding that churches of over 1,000 members
are in a distinct minority:

"Americans have a faulty view of the 'typical' church, synagogue and
mosque, according to a study conducted in March by sociologist David
A. Roozen and FACT (Faith Communities Today). Despite the perception
of large, urban churches as the norm, half of all congregations have
fewer than 100 adults that attend regularly, Roozen reported.
Furthermore, 52% are located in small towns and open country. The FACT
study is the largest ever conducted on American congregations.

On a related note, another study conducted by ABCNews found that
'megachurches'--those that average more than 1,000 members--are the
minority. According to findings, only 5% to 10% of the 300,000 to
400,000 churches in the United States meet this criteria. The study
also found that the number of Americans who attend megachurches is
between 2 million and 5 million."

Church Business
http://www.churchbusiness.com/articles/191cover.html

I located much more specific data from another source. In 2001, The
Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford Seminary
published "Faith Communities Today," a report on a survey that is
described as "the largest survey of congregations ever conducted in
the United States." For copyright reasons, I am posting only the most
salient excerpts from this report; you may read the report in its
entirety by clicking the link below.

"The Faith Communities Today data brings together 26 individual
surveys of congregations representing 41 denominations and faith
groups... Although all denominations and faith groups in the United
States had the opportunity to participate in the project, not all of
them did. The proportion of U.S. congregations represented in FACT is
not possible to determine with precision because there is no accurate
count of the total number of congregations in the United States.
Estimates typically range from 300,000 to 350,000."

"When the public thinks of congregations, the image that typically
comes to mind is a mega-church or a highsteeple urban church. The
reality, however, is that half of the congregations in the United
States have fewer than 100 regularly participating adults... and just
over half are located in small town and rural settings... Indeed, a
full quarter of congregations has fewer than 50 regularly
participating adults, while less than 10 percent have more than
1,000."

A pie-chart accompanying the report provides the figures you seek:

50% of churches have fewer than 100 regular participating adults (RPA)
33% of churches have 100 to 349 RPA
11% of churches have 359 to 999 RPA
6% of churches have 1000+ RPA

Hartford Seminary
http://fact.hartsem.edu/Final%20FACTrpt.pdf

(NOTE: The file linked above is in .pdf format. You need to 
 have Adobe Acrobat reader software installed on your computer 
 in order to view .pdf files. If you do not already have this 
 software, a free download is available here:
 
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html )

Search terms used:

"churches in the united states"
"church membership"
"church attendance"
"church statistics"
"size of congregation(s)"

This was an interesting quest! I hope I've provided the kind of
information that you need. The figures from the Hartford study are
likely to be the most authoritative data available at this time. If
anything is unclear, if you have a question about my research, or if a
link does not function, please request clarification; I'll be glad to
offer further assistance before you rate my answer.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud
nonac-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
This is exactly what I needed.  Thanks.

Comments  
Subject: Re: American churches
From: neilzero-ga on 31 May 2003 20:27 PDT
 
I will guess there are 2 million Christian (broad interpertation)
Churches having an average membership of 70 in the USA. Average adult
attendence is 20, with 50 adult members attending one or more times
per year, not counting visits by non-members. There are 10,000
churches that have average adult attendece between 250 and 1000
including non-member visitors in the preaching service. There are 1000
churches with an average attendence over 1000 in the USA.
 2000 Churches have broadband computer acess in the Church building,
but 100,000 pastors have broadband acess in their home.  All these
numbers are guesses. Often children do not attend the main worship
service, but they are often considered members, more than doubling the
membership, and tripling the average attendence, figureing all kinds
of meetings and activities, and including non-member children and
adults.  Neil
Subject: Re: American churches
From: sonofchrist-ga on 29 Sep 2003 10:16 PDT
 
Did you know that you can find alot about a nations religious status
by checking the CIA WORLD FACTBOOK. This is what it says about the
UNITED STATES.
Religions:   
Protestant 56%, Roman Catholic 28%, Jewish 2%, other 4%, none 10%
(1989)
You can access the CIA WORLD FACTBOOK at the following address:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

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