© 2006 by David T. Olson1 Quick Facts about the American Church 29 Interesting Facts about the American Church

© 2006 by David T. Olson2 Fact #1 The Lowest States in the percentage of the population attending a Christian church in 2000 were: 1. Utah 2. Nevada 3. Maine 4. Idaho 5. New Hampshire

© 2006 by David T. Olson3 Fact #2 The Highest States in the percentage of the population attending a Christian church in 2000 were: 1. Louisiana 2. North Dakota 3. South Dakota 4. Alabama 5. Mississippi

© 2006 by David T. Olson4 Fact #3 The only state to grow in church attendance faster than population growth from was Hawaii The other 49 declined.

© 2006 by David T. Olson5 Fact #4 On any given weekend in 1990, 20.4% of the American population attended an orthodox Christian church.

© 2006 by David T. Olson6 Fact #5 On any given weekend in 2000, 18.7% of the American population attended an orthodox Christian church.

© 2006 by David T. Olson7 Fact #6 In 2003 the Christian church attendance percentage was 17.8%

© 2006 by David T. Olson8 Fact #7 If the present rate of decline continues, in % of the population will be in a Christian church on any given weekend.

© 2006 by David T. Olson9 Fact #8 The number of 'regular attenders‘ (attending at least 3 Sunday out of every 8 Sundays) in the United States is about 24% of the population.

© 2006 by David T. Olson10 Fact #9 3,200 churches close their doors each year.

© 2006 by David T. Olson11 Fact #10 3,660 new churches are started each year that survive

© 2006 by David T. Olson12 Fact #11 There was a net gain of 4,600 churches in the United States from

© 2006 by David T. Olson13 Fact #12 While there was a net gain of 4,600 churches from , to have kept up with population growth there needed to be a net gain of 38,802.

© 2006 by David T. Olson14 Fact #13 Assuming that the existing church rate stays the same, the American church would need 3,300 additional new churches every year to keep up with population growth.

© 2006 by David T. Olson15 Fact #14 The United States church planting rate is one half of what it was in the 1950's.

© 2006 by David T. Olson16 Fact #15 Out of every 10 new Protestant churches (church plants), 9 are evangelical; 1 is Mainline.

© 2006 by David T. Olson17 Fact #16 The growth contribution for new Protestant churches (church plants) was 6 times more than the growth contribution of existing Protestant churches.

© 2006 by David T. Olson18 Fact #17 Evangelical churches went from 9.2% of the population in attendance in 1990 to 9.0% in 2000, a decline of 3 percent.

© 2006 by David T. Olson19 Fact #18 Mainline churches went from 3.9% of the population in attendance in 1990 to 3.4% in 2000, a decline of 15 percent.

© 2006 by David T. Olson20 Fact #19 Catholic churches went from 7.2% of the population in attendance in 1990 to 6.2% in 2000, a decline of 16 percent.

© 2006 by David T. Olson21 Fact #20 In 1990, 32% of Catholics went to mass every week; by 2000 that had declined to 28% and by 2003 it was 25%.

© 2006 by David T. Olson22 Fact #21 The three largest Mainline denominations are the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA); their attendance percentage declined by 6% from

© 2006 by David T. Olson23 Fact #22 From , six representative Evangelical denominations grew 1% faster than population growth.

© 2006 by David T. Olson24 Fact #23 The average size of a Protestant church in 2000 was 127, 6 more than in 1990.

© 2006 by David T. Olson25 Fact #24 The average size of a mainline church grew from 112 to 115 from 1990 to 2000.

© 2006 by David T. Olson26 Fact #25 The average size of an evangelical church grew from 124 to 131 from 1990 to 2000.

© 2006 by David T. Olson27 Fact #26 The average size of a Catholic church was 794 in both 1990 and in 2000.

© 2006 by David T. Olson28 Fact #27 Evangelical churches are growing fastest in high median income counties.

© 2006 by David T. Olson29 Fact #28 Denominations that close the highest percentage of churches grow the most; those that close the least almost always are in numerical decline!

© 2006 by David T. Olson30 Fact #29 There were 843 Americans for every Christian church in 1990; that increased to 939 Americans for every Christian church by 2000.

© 2006 by David T. Olson31 Information on the Information The spiritual health of churches is multifaceted, and is obviously much more complex than an attendance trend can portray. However, following the example of St. Luke in the Book of Acts, who used the number of people who showed up at various events as a sign documenting the health and growth of the early church, I would suggest that attendance is the single most helpful indicator of health, growth and decline. Information has been compiled only for orthodox Christian groups – Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox. The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarian-Universalists and the International Churches of Christ have not been included. In addition, information about non-Christian groups has not been compiled. African American denominations publish very little that is statistical – often not even a list of current churches. This study used data from the 1990 Glenmary study on Black Baptist estimates and AME Zion churches, the average African American worship attendance (from the Barna Research Group), and a statistical model based on the population of African Americans in each county in 1990 and These were combined to come up with as accurate an estimate as possible. Independent church data is almost impossible to obtain. (There are actually fewer totally independent churches than is assumed. Most are part of some voluntary association, which typically keeps some records.) Data from the 1990 & 2000 Glenmary study on larger Independent churches (limited to over 300 in attendance) was used along with a statistical model to estimate the attendance at smaller independent churches. In Catholic churches, the definition of what constitutes membership varies with diocese and church, making numbers sometimes inconsistent from state to state and county to county. In addition to actual mass counts from 1/3 rd of Catholic parishes, membership information has been merged with attendance patterns from similar dioceses based on the size of the diocese and the region in which it is located. Orthodox Churches are included in Totals, but not included as a separate group because of smallness of size nationwide. Division into Evangelical and Mainline categories is based on the division by the Glenmary Study. This study only looks at how many people attend a Christian church on any given Sunday. The term ‘regular attender’ can be designated to mean someone who attends a Christian church on a consistent basis. Using a simple definition for ‘regular attender’ (attends at least 3 out of every 8 Sundays), between 23% and 25% of Americans would fit this category. Adding ‘regular attenders’ of non-orthodox christian churches and other religions to the totals would increase the percentage to 26% – 28%.

© 2006 by David T. Olson32 is based on a nationwide study of American Christian church attendance, as reported by churches and denominations. The database currently has average worship attendances for each of the last 10 years for over 200,000 individual churches throughout the country. It also uses supplementary information (such as actual membership numbers extrapolated with membership to attendance ratios) to accurately project the attendances of other denominational and independent churches. All told, accurate information is provided for all 300,000 Christian churches. Division into Evangelical and Mainline Protestant is taken from the Glenmary decadal study of church membership. A list of evangelical denominations can be found at A list of mainline denominations are at This study does not include non-orthodox Christian groups or non-Christian religions in America. This Presentation

© 2006 by David T. Olson33 For More Information... Presentations such as this are available for the largest 100 metropolitan areas, for each state and for the nation as a whole, as well as other presentations to show what is happening in the American church. Presentations are available either by direct download, CD or print. Please go to for ordering information. Dave Olson is the Director of The American Church Research Project as well as the Director of Church Planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. He has been collecting research information on American Churches for the last 17 years. For more information, please go to or contact Dave at