The Ten Largest Churches

[Scott1]

The "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches for 2004" says there are 215 denominations with 161 million members. The complete report can be found at http://www.electronicchurch.org

Here are the top ten churches in the U.S., with numbers representing millions of adherents:

1. Catholic Church, 66.4
2. Southern Baptist Convention, 16.2
3. United Methodist Church, 8.3
4. Church of God in Christ, 5.5
5. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), 5.4
6. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 5.0
7. National Baptist Convention USA, 5.0
8. National Baptist Convention of America, 3.5
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3.4
10. Assemblies of God, 2.7

 

[anders]

That list was a huge surprise to me. I had no idea that there were that many Catholics and baptists and churches I never heard of.

I tried to find some figures for Sweden, but religion is such a private aspect of life to us that there are no official statistics.

For comparison, what I found on the Internet for the 9 million Swedes was

Church of Sweden (which is Lutheran) 7.1 million
Catholics: towards 200 000
Pentecostals: approching 90 000
Baptists: almost 22 000
Mormons: some 9 000
Methodists: 4 600

Another comparison: the number of Muslims is probably between 85 000 and 300 000.

 

[Scott1]

Very interesting..... thanks anders!

 

[Rex]

Scott wouldn't that table be a little misleading.

The U.S. is mainly Protestant but Protestant has tons of churches that all equal up to way more than the one catholic church.

 

[Rex]

Affiliation Number of
Respondents % of U.S.


Christianity 9,478 71.7%
All Protestants 6,544 49.5
Baptist 1,700 12.9
Southern Baptist 933 7.1
Other Baptist 767 5.8
Methodist 1,081 8.2
Lutheran 515 3.9
Presbyterian 336 2.5
Episcopalian 221 1.7
Other Denominations 1,674 12.7
Non-Denominational 1,016 7.7
Catholic 2,629 19.9
Latter-day Saints 186 1.4

Jewish 305 2.3
Agnostic or Atheist 944 7.1
Other 10.0
Nonreligious/No answer 10.0
Total (All Registered Voters) 13,224 100.0%

 

[linwood]

protestants have alwasy enjoyed an over 50 percent majority until recently.

They have apparently declined 10-12% in the last decade depending upon which poll you`re seeing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5465761/

On the flip side atheist/agnostic/non religious are on an upswing.

 

[Scott1]

Scott wouldn't that table be a little misleading.

The U.S. is mainly Protestant but Protestant has tons of churches that all equal up to way more than the one catholic church.

Misleading? Not at all. It is what it is... major church groups.

I did not offer this as a tally of Catholic vs. Protestant (kinda a childish move to add in the "way more"... like I would care) , but for just what it is: information.

You should have looked at the link I provided.... the NCC is hardly a Catholic organization, and a group that I think you should be very interested in.
About the NCC: http://www.ncccusa.org/about/about_ncc.htm

Peace,
Scott

 

[Engyo]

Another way to slice this pie:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

and a nicely done graphic:

http://www.usatoday.com/graphics/news/gra/gnoreligion/flash.htm

 

[Ardhanariswar]

there will be an outburst of hindu/muslim/sikh citizens within the next 10 to 20 years, now that the indian immigrants had kids here in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

[Green Gaia]

Curious here... why do you all think the Baptist denomination is so big?

 

[Green Gaia]

As a side note, there are about 500,000 UUs in North America. But we're growing!