Under Construction

Description of Christian Churches

Demographics

  1 Roman Catholic Church  1 Billion  (66 M in US) 1.2% growth
  2 Protestant 770 M 1.36%
    2.1 Main   485 M
    Liberal:    150 M
      Reformed/Presbyterian (USA)/Congregational/United Church of Christ	75 M
       Presbyterian USA (1.5M USA, 2004)
      American Baptist
      United Methodist  70 M (8.5M USA)
      Episcopal/Anglician/Church of England 70 M (2.5 M USA)
      United Church of Christ
      Uniterian
    Moderate/Conservative: (sometimes lumped with evangelical) 200 M
      Baptist    70 M 
         National Baptist Convention (8.2M USA) - Moderate
         Southern Baptist Convention (16M) - Conservative
      Lutheran   64 M (5.2M USA)
      Disciples of Christ


    Evangelical 65 M
       Seventh-day Adventists	   11 M
       Pentecostal		
           Assemblies of God	       32 M (2.4M USA)
           various churches of God
              Church of God in Christ (5.5M USA)
       Christian Reformed,
       Christian and Missionary Aliance
       Evangelical Free Church
       Nazarene,
       Churches of Christ
         United Church of Christ (1.4M USA)
        Presbyterian America (300K, 2000)
       Independent Christian Churches (Instrumental),
       Mega-churches,  
       Southern Baptist (16M USA)
    Fundamentalist
       Independent Fundamental Churches of America
       General Association of Regular Baptist Churches
       Bob Jones University
       Tennessee Temple University
       Pensacola Christian CollegE
    2.2 Other 
       Anglican	  68 M (Includes non US Episcopal ?)
       African indigenous sects (AICs)	110M
       
       New Thought (Unity, Christian Science, etc.) 1.5 M
       Friends (Quakers)       0.3     
  3  Orthodox/Eastern Church 227 M
  4. Other (sometimes included in protestant)
      Jehovah's Witnesses	   5-14 M (1 M USA)
      Latter-day Saints (Morman)	11 M (4.9M USA)
      Unitarian (800K USA)
   5. See Other Spiritual Philosophies
     
       



2016 Pew Research
Source: U.S. religious groups and their political leanings | Pew Research Center
Largest in USA (2010)
(Source: Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, a publication of the National Council of Churches (NCC).
Rnk Church Members Growth
1 The Catholic Church 68,115,001 1.49%
2 Southern Baptist Convention 16,228,438 -0.24%
3 The United Methodist Church 7,853,987 -0.98%
4 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 5,974,041 1.71%
5 The Church of God in Christ 5,499,875 na
6 National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc 5,000,000 na
7 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 4,633,887 -1.62%
8 National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. 3,500,000 na
9 Assemblies of God 2,899,702 1.27%
10 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2,844,952 -3.28%
11 African Methodist Episcopal Church 2,500,000 na
11 National Missionary Baptist Convention of America 2,500,000 na
11 Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc 2,500,000 na
14 The Lutheran Church-- Missouri Synod (LCMS) 2,337,349 -1.92%.
15 The Episcopal Church 2,057,292 -2.81%.
16 Churches of Christ 1,639,495 na
17 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America 1,500,000 na
17 Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. 1,500,000 na
19 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church 1,400,000 na
20 American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. 1,331,127 -2.00%.
21 Baptist Bible Fellowship International 1,200,000 na
22 JehovahÕs Witnesses 1,114,009 2.00%.
23 United Church of Christ 1,111,691 -2.93%.
24 Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) 1,072,169 1.76%.
25 Christian Churches and Churches of Christ 1,071,616 na

The survey, called "Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000" compared the membership of most U.S. denominations between 1990 and 2000. In that decade the United Methodist Church lost 6.7%, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 11.6%, the Episcopal Church 5.3%, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 2.2%, the American Baptist Church 5.7%, the Disciples of Christ 1.9%, and the United Church of Christ 14.8%.
During that time the U.S. population increased by over 13%.

Growing churches were conservative: Southern Baptists increased by 5%, the Assemblies of God 18.5%, the Roman Catholic Church 16.2%, the Churches of Christ 18.6%, the Church of God 40.2%, the Presbyterian Church in America 42.4% and the Wesleyan Church 46.9%.
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A study conducted by the Glenmary Research Center and sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies., ''Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000,'' found that the fastest-growing religious denomination in the last 10 years was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 19% growth from 1990 to 2000. The next highest growth were the conservative Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, with 18.6 percent; the Assemblies of God, a major Pentecostal denomination, with 18.5 percent; and the Roman Catholic Church, with 16.2 percent.

Growth since 1989
Mormon  +300K
Presbyterians -400K
Links:
Mainline Decline
U.S. religious groups and their political leanings | Pew Research Center
Christian Branches
Christian Churches
U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious |2014 Pew Research Center

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last updated 2 Mar 2010