Loading ...Pentecostals, Witnesses, Mormons growing
flockwoodThe National Council of Churches has released its list of the 25 largest denominations in the United States. All of the mainline churches are declining. So are the Catholics and the Southern Baptists.
White Pentecostal denominations, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are growing. The complete list is below.
It’s hard to tell what’s happening, statistically with the African American congregations because they don’t conduct annual membership surveys.
Membership of the top 25 churches in the U.S. totals 146,663,972 — down 0.49 percent from last year’s total of 147,382,460.
The top 25 churches reported in the 2009 Yearbook are in order of size:
The Roman Catholic Church, 67,117,06 members, down 0.59 percent. (Ranked 1)
The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,266,920 members, down 0.24 percent. (Ranked 2)
The United Methodist Church, 7,931,733 members, down 0.80 percent. (Ranked 3)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,873,408 members, up 1.63 percent .(Ranked 4)
The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no change reported. (Ranked 5)
National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., 5,000,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 6)
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,709,956 members, down 1.35 percent. (Ranked 7)
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 8)
Presbyterian Church (USA), 2,941,412 members, down 2.79 percent (Ranked 9)
Assemblies of God, 2,863,265 members, up 0.96 percent. (Ranked 10)
African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,383,084 members, down 1.44 percent. (Ranked 14)
The Episcopal Church, 2,116,749 members, down 1.76 percent. (Ranked 15)
Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, no change reported. (Ranked 16)
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 17)
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 17)
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,400,000 members, down 3.01 percent. (Ranked 19)
American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,358,351, down 0.94 percent. (Ranked 20)
Baptist Bible Fellowship International, 1,200,000, no change reported. (Ranked 21)
United Church of Christ, 1,145,281 members, down 6.01 percent. (Ranked 22)
Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,092,169 members, up 2.12 percent (Ranked 23)
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,616 members, no change reported. (Ranked 24)
Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), 1,053,642 members, up 2.04 percent. (Ranked 25)
February 25th, 2009 at 11:47 am
The Jehovah Witness numbers surprised me. I don’t meet nearly as many of them as in years past, and figured that their growth may have stagnated.
It would have been interesting to see the statistics on non-denominational Christian churches. Despite the name that classification has many characteristics of a denomination, and they probably have a much greater growth rate than any other major group. Remember, too, that there are other religious groups not listed here. There are millions of Jews in the USA, and the Muslim population is growing rapidly.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
When you look at these numbers in context, what strikes me is that none of the denominations listed has had much of a change in membership, up or down. Everyone says that the Episcopal Church is dying, but it lost only 1.76% of its members, which ain’t bad given the turmoil that we’re in with those pesky conservative dioceses and parishes.
The Roman Catholics are down a half a percent, when all the news reports talk about Catholic churches in most cities being full to the rafters with newly arrived hispanic congregants. The Mormons are supposed to be taking over the world, but they grew less than 2%, and there are only five million of them. I know that’s twice the size of my own church, but it’s less than ten percent of the size of the Catholics and a third of the number of Southern Baptists; they’re only slightly larger than the Church of God in Christ, whatever that is.
All in all, it looks like we’re a pretty diverse group, and amazingly stable.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
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February 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
No matter what anyone tells you, the mormons are a cult and worship outside of the Bible. Even though they prop up the Bible and qute it,they are not bible believing christians. They know how to grow and it’s done under deception and populist tactics. The new thing for mormons is the boy scouts. They have infilitrated the organization and very patiently try to recruit you. they are very clever and go out of there way to sound mainstream, but they are not. Beware of this cult.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I learned once upon a time that anyone can prove anything with numbers. Looks like that might be happening here as Caleb has already pointed out. Being a retired pastor of one of these mainline denominations the most interesting part of this blog to me was that both Catholics and Southern Baptists were considered something other than mainline denominations – which I had always thought they were.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Numbers for the Churches of Christ are hard to establish since there is no denominational headquarters, but the 1.6 million figure given by the NCC is too high. The latest (December 2008) and most reliable numbers put the C of C at 1,224,525 members and 1,578,400 adherents. The adherents number is often used since unbaptized children are usually not counted in the membership number.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
We are taking over the world, Caleb. Glad you heard! JK! Actually, the LDS church is growing much more rapidly outside of the US than domestically, I believe.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Thus my choice of words, David; I said the Mormons were taking over the world, not necessarily the US. I suspect the markets are better for their product overseas; in the US, I imagine, traditional Christianity is pretty well here to stay.
March 1st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I believe the Catholics and Baptists are much smaller than they report. If you consider only active members the Mormons are probably largert than the United Methodists.
June 6th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I am pretty sure that the agnostics is the fast growing belief system in the world; especially in the USA.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
The Saviors true church will continue to grow, until it has penetrated every continent, visted every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, Till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.