Episcopal Press and News
Membership Study Provides Picture of American Religions
Episcopal News Service. August 19, 1992 [92176]
Jerry Hames, Editor of Episcopal Life
A once-in-a-decade religious membership study released in July after four years of preparation and data gathering holds a wealth of information that should delight Episcopalians engaged in evangelism.
The study, sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, is a nationwide, county-by-county study of churches and church membership, using statistics from 133 Jewish and Christian bodies.
Because of improved methods of estimating the number of adherents for some groups compared with studies undertaken in 1950, 1970 and 1980, sociologist William McKinney of the Hartford Seminary Foundation called it the best profile that has ever been compiled.
Today, we don't have perfect numbers, but we have better numbers," McKinney observed. "This gives us a picture of the religions of the American people."
According to the study, which included statistics from Roman Catholics, Protestants, Mormons and Jews, the 137-million adherents that were counted represent 55.1 percent of the total U.S. population, up from 112.5 million, or 49.7 percent, in 1980. The 1980 study included 22 fewer church bodies.
The Episcopal Church ranked 10th overall among the religious bodies, with 2,445,286 adherents, including adults and children, or 1 percent of the population.
In comparison with other major Protestant denominations, Episcopalians compose 25 percent or more of all church members only in some counties in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Alaska. When Roman Catholics and Jews are added, Episcopalians never compose as much as 25 percent of all church members in any county in the nation.
The study's reporting of adherents by county reveals that American religious affiliation patterns follow strikingly regional lines. Roman Catholicism dominates the Northeast and parts of Texas, Louisiana and California. The South is conservative Protestant, mainly Southern Baptist.
Of significant interest is the fact that 44.9 percent of the population evidently has no religious affiliation at all.
West of the Rocky Mountains, the American landscape contains large areas where less than one fourth of the residents are claimed by any Christian or Jewish groups. The study reveals that virtually the only part of the West with high concentrations of adherents -- where more than half of the population is claimed by a religious organization -- are Utah and parts of the surrounding states, where Mormons are dominant, and much of New Mexico, where Roman Catholics dominate.
Four-color maps illustrate those large tracts in the West, Northwest and Middle West that have a high "unchurched" population, valuable data of use to planners in new-church development, giving a sense of the opportunities and the extent of the presence of other religious bodies.
Previous studies conducted by the same association have been valuable to the Episcopal Church and became a resource for study papers and workbooks produced by the church's evangelism office.
Results gleaned from this most recent survey will undoubtedly stimulate ecumenical awareness and aid in denominational planning, by dioceses as well as the national evangelism office. They prove conclusively that, in most parts of the East and Midwest, 25 percent to 50 percent of the population has no religious affiliation. From the eastern borders of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico to the Pacific, that number increases dramatically to above 75 percent in many areas.