Religion: Those Church Statistics

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Everybody knows that church life is booming in the U.S., and there are plenty of statistics to prove it. But statistics can bear false witness. The Information Service of the National Council of Churches has published a guide to the snares of religious facts and figures. Highlights:

¶The annual compilations of church statistics, found in the Yearbook of American Churches, represent nothing more accurate or official than the results gained from "mailing blanks . . . to the official statisticians of the religious bodies. But not all of the reports are for 1954 in the latest compilation."

¶As for church membership, the statisticians of the religious bodies often depend for their figures on the unchecked estimates of local pastors. As for church attendance, so confidently said to be increasing, no real statistics exist at all.

¶There is no agreement as to what constitutes a church member. "For example, Jewish [groups] estimate the number of Jews in communities having congregations. The Eastern Orthodox churches include the persons in the cultural or nationality group served. Roman Catholics, and a few Protestant bodies, number all baptized persons, including children, in the membership. Most Protestant bodies include only so-called adults . . . persons usually beyond 13 years of age, as members. Yet in the Yearbook of American Churches, 1945, it was estimated that about 5,000,000 members of Protestant churches were under 13 years of age."

With these warnings and qualifications, the National Council goes on to give the latest figures.

Total church membership, for what it may be worth, is now equal to 60.3% of the population of the continental U.S.—a gain of 2.8% for 1954. Protestant increase: 2.3%. Roman Catholic increase: 2.9%. Population increase: 1.7%.

Membership in six major U.S. religious groups: Protestant, 57,124,142; Roman Catholic, 32,403,332; Jewish, 5,500,000; Eastern Orthodox, 2,024,219; Old Catholic and Polish National Catholic, 367,918; Buddhist, 63,000.