RACHAEL’S QUESTION:
What are the major Christian denominations in the U.S.?
THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:
Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.
The Pew Research Center snagged some headlines April 2 with projections on world religions as of 2050 that are worth pondering. Among other things, we’re told high birth rates will make world Islam almost as large as Christianity, India will surpass Indonesia as the nation with the biggest Muslim population, Muslims will constitute 10 percent of Europeans, and will surpass the number of religious Jews in the U.S.
Rachael’s question brings us back to the present day, to just the United States, and to Christians only. This has long been an easy topic thanks to the National Council of Churches and its predecessor, the Federal Council, which since 1916 issued yearbooks stuffed with statistics and other information. These annuals became more vital after 1936 when the U.S. Census stopped gathering data from religious groups. Unfortunately, the N.C.C. hasn’t managed to issue its “Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches” since 2012 due to shrinking staff, budget, and program, and has no firm plans for any future editions. Any volunteers out there to produce this all-important reference work?
Some data were outdated or rough estimates, but it’s what we’ve had and, on the whole, reasonably representative. Here were “inclusive” memberships for U.S. groups reporting at least 2 million members in that latest and perhaps last yearbook from 2012:
Catholic Church -- 68,303,492
Southern Baptist Convention -- 16,136,044
United Methodist Church -- 7,679,850
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- 6,157,238
Church of God in Christ -- 5,449,875
National Baptist Convention USA Inc. -- 5,197,512
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- 4,274,855
National Baptist Convention of America -- 3,500,000
Assemblies of God -- 3,030,944
Presbyterian Church (USA) -- 2,675,873
African Methodist Episcopal Church -- 2,500,000
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America -- 2,500,000
Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod -- 2,278,586
While Pew looked ahead to 2050, Rachael and others may be interested in looking back to the yearbook’s top nine denominations as of 1918, said to encompass 77.2 percent of U.S. memberships for all religions:
Catholic Church -- 15,742,262
Methodist Episcopal Church -- 3,718,396
National Baptist Convention -- 3,018,341
Southern Baptist Convention -- 2,711,591
Methodist Episcopal Church, South -- 2,108,061
Presbyterian Church in the USA -- 1,613,056
Disciples of Christ -- 1,231,404
Northern Baptist Convention -- 1,227,448
Protestant Episcopal Church -- 1,098,173
Adding in smaller denominations, the 1918 yearbook listed four major categories of Protestants:
Baptists (17 groups) -- 7,236,650
Methodists (17 groups) -- 7,165,986
Lutherans (21 groups) -- 2,463,265
Presbyterians (10 groups) -- 2,257,439
A few broad comparisons of 1918 and 2012 without getting too far into the weeds on changing names, mergers, and all that.
Continue reading "What are the biggest Christian flocks in America these days?" by Richard Ostling.