U.S. Religious Census 2010 Released

The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) recently released a report showing a breakdown comparing the change in  members of many of religious denominations by county in the United States between 2000-2010. The Christian Reformed Church is included in the breakdown.

In the report, ASARB also grouped together nondenominational and independent churches, showing that collectively they are now the third largest faith group with more than 12 million adherents. Mormons and Muslims are also on the rise.

The Catholic Church, though in decline, remains the largest faith with almost 59 million adherents, followed by the Southern Baptist Convention, which includes more than 50,000 congregations and almost 20 million adherents.

The statistics are contained in the recent newsletter of Faith Communities Today,  a collection of religious groups of which the CRC is a participating member.

The ASARB Religious Census originated in 1952 and was replicated in 1971, 1980, 1990, and 2000. It has previously been identified as the Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS). The 2010 census identified 344,894 local congregations with a total of just over 150 million adherents.

In the breakdown  by county of denominational membership, the CRC had its largest group of members in Kent County, Mich., where Grand Rapids is located. The survey shows 43,152 members in Kent County in 2010.

Other counties with a larger membership include Cook County, Ill., where Chicago is located. Nearly 9,000 people are members  of the CRC here.

Los Angeles and Orange counties in California had more than 13,000 members between them.

Sioux County, Iowa, home of  Sioux Center, had nearly 9,000 members.

Overall, the CRC had 262,588 total members, including churches in Canada in 2010, according to the CRC's annual yearbook of statistics.

That number dropped to 255,706 in 2011 and  251,727 in 2012, says the yearbook.

The growth in the Mormon denomination remains high, according to the recently released report.

"What struck us was the continued extension of the Mormon denomination across the country. It is the fastest growing religion in about half of the states," said Dale E. Jones, director of research services at the Church of the Nazarene Global Ministry Center and a project coordinator for ASARB.

"Another surprise was the loss in Catholic parish memberships. They've lost five percent, or three million people, over the last decade."

Jones said Islam is the largest non-Christian faith group in the midsection of the country. He said the Muslim uptick is likely due to immigrants because the American-born Muslim population has remained steady.

Data for every county in the nation is available at www.thearda.com/rcms2010/.