Friday, January 11, 2008

Statistics of PCUSA

Check out my Synod/Presbytery page for more info. Of course these are 2006 numbers. If you have suggestions for additional lies, errr, statistics let me know. I have the raw data in three CSV files: synods, presbyteries, churches. Here is a summary:
  • Synods: 16
  • Presbyteries: 173
  • Churches: 10,697
  • Mega: (>2000) 9
  • Large:(>300) 750
  • Medium:(>50) 5,683
  • Small:(<50)> 4,255
  • Members: 2,238,880
  • Worship: 1,176,884
  • C Ed: 1,159,140
  • Contributions: $2,318,909,951 (2.3 BILLION)
  • Avg/Worshiper: $1,977
Note: For some reason Dakota (Native Americian) does not report numbers! 21 churches

5 comments:

  1. Could you elaborate the difference between membership and worship statistics. Does this indicate that roughly 1/2 of members actually participate?

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my church, there are many more "members" than those who show up to a Sunday Worship service. This difference can be from:
    * out of town/Work/illness
    * homebound/nursing home/etc.
    * Failure of session to move members to inactive or remove.(quit, move, death)
    Most churches have about 10% gone due to the first reason.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks.

    Still, between the 1st and 2nd - that still doesn't account for what, the better part of a million people? Do you think these are overstated on the roles? I know most sessions are very slow to remove members, so I guess it's possible.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can only speak from my experience. Our session is very slow on removing members, and even slower moving them to inactive status if they are in nursing homes, etc. They is why I use the worship number.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jim,

    thanks for your data analysis of pcusa statistics--it's quite helpful. you mentioned that you've got all this in a spreadsheet--can you email that to me? I'd love to be able to sort.

    ReplyDelete