Religion in America - Christian Houses Of Worship

Religious affiliation in the United States is overwhelmingly Christian. Therefore, as expected, the top 10 denominations with the most churches in the United States in 1999 are all Christian. The chart above shows the number of churches by denomination for the years 1980, 1990, and 1999. Although The Church of God in Christ reported having more churches than the Churches of Christ, that denomination was not included here because data were from 1991 and no comparable data were available for 1980 or 1999.

Most of the denominations report having more churches in 1999 than in 1980. Only the United Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) report having fewer. The number of churches belonging to the Evangelical Church in America and the Episcopal Church have remained essentially unchanged in those 19 years.

Does the growth (or decline) in churches parallel a growth (or decline) in membership? The following table shows that this is not always the case. The number of United Methodist and Presbyterian (U.S.A.) churches declined in accordance with the decline in adherents. The number of Assembly of God churches and the number of Latter-Day Saint churches increased in accordance with an increase in adherents. However, the rest (except for the Catholic Church) had declines in adherents but increases in the number of churches, suggesting more but smaller congregations.

Percentage Change in Adherents vs. Percentage Change in Number of Churches, 1980-1999

	Adherents(% change)	Churches(% change)
Southern Baptist Convention	-3.4	14.9
United Methodist Church	-27.5	-7.4
Roman Catholic Church	31.3	-12.2
Churches of Christ	-6.3	17.9
Assemblies of God	59.7	27.6
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	90.4	67.1
Jehovah's Witnesses8	-28.3	31.7
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	-11.3	-11.6
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	-4.3	0.1
Episcopal Church	-17.9	1.4

We turn next to the effects of the growth or decline in the number of churches on the congregation.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States 2001. American Religion Data Archive. "Denominational Groupings: Full U.S. Report." Online. Available: http://www.thearda.com. March 6, 2002. "Top 10 Religious Bodies with Most Churches in the U.S., 1990." Online. Available: http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html. February 28, 2002.

8 Percentage change is from 1990-1999. No data was available for 1980.