What is the total number of African American/Black churches in the
United States of America.

Hello Orice and thank you for your question.


The total number of African American/Black churches in the United
States is 69,738. This estimate is based upon reliable resources which
I am listing below.

According to the late professor, C. Eric. Lincoln who co-authored, The
Black Church in the African American Experience with Lawrence H.
Mamiya, the following are the  major historic black denominations
churches:

- The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
- The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church
- The Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church
- The National Baptist Convention, USA. Incorporated (NBC)
- The National Baptist Convention of America, Unincorporated (NBCA)
- The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC)
- The Church of God in Christ (COGIC)
- The National Missionary Baptist Convention (NMBC)
- The Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship (FGBCF)

Source: Black and Christian Website
http://www.blackandchristian.com/blackchurch/index.shtml


The following figures are taken from the Statistical Abstract of the
United States (page 61):

The African Methodist Episcopal Church           8,000
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church      3,098
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church         2,340
The Church of God in Christ                     15,300
The National Baptist Convention of America       2,500
The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.      33,000
The Progressive National Baptist Association     2,000
United Methodist Church (UMC)                    3,500
http://fact.hartsem.edu/denom/denom_aa.htm
The National Missionary Baptist Convention         N/A
The Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship          N/A
Total                                           69,738

The above figures were prepared for the United States Department of
Commerce, Bureau of the Census. It is for the 2001 edition of the
Statistical Abstract of the United States
http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/statab/sec01.pdf


Additional information that may interest you:

African-American Religion in the Nineteenth Century by Laurie
Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
National Humanities Center
http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nafrican.htm

Links to African American Religion Online Resources
http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/nineteen/nlinksaar.htm

Search Criteria:

African American Church of God in Christ
African American churches +statistics
African American churches +figures
African American churches +numbers
African American Church
Census Bureau +religion


I hope this response has provided you with the information you were
seeking. 

Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by orice-ga on 03 Nov 2002 05:14 PST

You are correct, your answer does not include all of the storefront
churches that permeate America. I would put this number at 150,0000.
Thank you for your information.

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Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 03 Nov 2002 06:29 PST

Thank you

While the answer given may accurately represent the number of black
churches in historically black denominations, I wonder if the question
was meant to ask about the total number of black congregations....

Many of the mainline denominations have individual congregations that
are predominately black - these churches would not be counted in the
number in the answer.  I am not sure how you would get that number,
since in my denomination (United Methodists) churches are not
designated in any official count by the dominate ethnicity of the
membership (at least not to my knowledge....)