Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches 2010 - Cokesbury

Table 1—Longitudinal Inclusive Membership
This table represents a longitudinal view of aggregated membership totals for all
churches reporting to the Yearbook. These data do not reflect the entirety of national
church membership since some churches either do not gather such data, or do not report
them to the Yearbook. These figures moreover do not include membership of independent
congregations including megachurches. Substantial numbers of church members, therefore,
are not accounted for in nationally-gathered membership data. With more than 163
million adherents, the churches collectively continue to maintain a substantial organizational
and institutional presence within the United States.
Table 2—US Membership Church Ranking
This table allows comparison in size as determined by membership of the largest
twenty-five churches in the nation. Dwarfing any single other church is the Catholic
Church, reporting over 68 million adherents. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints is ranked 4th with nearly 6 million members. The remainder of the top 25 are
Protestant Churches with two exceptions; the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, which is
ranked 17th, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is ranked 22nd, displacing the United
Church of Christ in this position.
The patterns of affiliation reflected in this table offer a numerical view and summary
of American church history. Protestantism has, since the founding of the republic and
until the present moment, enjoyed cultural hegemony accompanied throughout by a
consistent substantial Catholic presence.
Four of the twenty-five largest churches are Pentecostal in belief and practice. Strong
figures from the Assemblies of God and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) suggest
a continuing increase in numbers of adherents to Pentecostal groups, though it is
impossible to state unequivocally from this table since the other two charismatic
churches in this ranking have not reported in some years. The four largest Pentecostal
churches are: The Church of God in Christ, Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal
Assemblies of the World, Inc., and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), which
has moved from 25th to 24th in this ranking.
The ranking of churches on the basis of membership remains relatively stable as indicated
by the first column of numbers in Table 2. The last column presents increases
(decreases) as a percentage change from the 77th edition’s reported membership figures.
With the exception of the Catholic Church, United Church of Christ, the American
Baptist Churches, and The Episcopal Church, the largest 25 churches are maintaining
respective growth (or decline) in membership. The largest percentage change was
reported by the United Church of Christ, which diminished its rate of loss from -6.01%
to -2.93%. The Catholic Church reversed from a one-year decline of 0.59% to post an
increase of 1.49%. The Episcopal Church reports a 2.81% decrease in membership,
quickening its losses from its previous -1.76% rate of decline reported in the 2009 edition
of the Yearbook, but reflecting a slower decline in membership than the 4.15%,
decline reported in the 2007 edition. The American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. doubled
its rate of membership decline, going from -0.94% to -2.00%.
The top fifteen churches, those with membership exceeding two million members, are
reflective of the constancy of the Historic Black Churches. Six of the fifteen largest
churches (The Church of God in Christ, National Baptist Convention USA, National
Baptist Church of America Inc., National Missionary Baptist Convention of America,
Progressive National Baptist Convention, and African Methodist Episcopal Church) are
predominately African American churches. This of course is reflective of the historic
strength of the church within the African American community.
In the last quarter century there has been much analysis and debate concerning the
decline of “mainline” Protestantism. Whatever the specific rates of growth or decline
may be for individual mainline denominations, this ranking illustrates a significant
aggregate presence in the American religious landscape. Of the top ten largest churches,
three are mainline protestant (United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America, and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)). In the top twenty-five churches, six are
TRENDS &
DEVELOPMENTS, 2009
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