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Summary
- The Catholic Church is the largest Christian body in the United States: 61.9 million adherents in the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, 66.3 million parish-connected Catholics in its 2025 directory count, and 19% of adults in Pew’s 2023–24 survey.
- Nondenominational churches together rank second, with 21.1 million adherents in 2020, and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination, with 12,331,954 members in 2025.
- Forty percent of American adults are Protestant and 62% are Christian, according to Pew’s 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study; 29% have no religion.
- Nondenominational churches grew by nearly nine million adherents between 2010 and 2020, while the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church each lost about two million.
- About a quarter of United Methodist congregations in the U.S. left the denomination in disaffiliations that ended in 2023; it had slightly fewer than 4 million U.S. members in 2024.
- Forty-six percent of the youngest adults identify as Christian, compared with 80% of adults aged 74 and older.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Grammich, Clifford, et al. 2020 U.S. Religion Census: Religious Congregations & Adherents Study. Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, 2023. https://www.usreligioncensus.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/2020_US_Religion_Census.pdf
- U.S. Religion Census. “U.S. Religion Census Shows Both Stability and Change in Congregational Life.” Press release, 2020 census. https://www.usreligioncensus.org/node/1641
- Smith, Gregory A., et al. “Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off.” Pew Research Center, 26 February 2025. doi:10.58094/4kqq-3112. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/
- Pew Research Center. “2023-24 Religious Landscape Study: Executive summary.” 26 February 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religious-landscape-study-executive-summary/
- Pew Research Center. “1. Religious identity,” including the tables “Largest Protestant denominations in the United States” and “Among Protestants, share who are nondenominational has doubled since 2007.” 26 February 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religious-landscape-study-religious-identity/
- Pew Research Center. “24. Age, race, education and other demographic traits of U.S. religious groups.” 26 February 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/age-race-education-and-other-demographic-traits-of-us-religious-groups/
- Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). “Frequently Requested Church Statistics” (U.S. data for 2025, from The Official Catholic Directory). https://cara.georgetown.edu/faqs
- Baptist Press. “Southern Baptists see attendance, baptism gains amid membership declines.” May 2026 (2025 Annual Church Profile, compiled by Lifeway Research). https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/southern-baptists-see-attendance-baptism-gains-amid-membership-declines/
- UM News. “GC2028 delegate count marks historic shift.” https://www.umnews.org/en/news/gc2028-delegate-count-marks-historic-shift
- Hahn, Heather. “United Methodists remove same-sex wedding ban.” UM News, 3 May 2024. https://www.umnews.org/en/news/united-methodists-remove-same-sex-wedding-ban
- Weems, Lovett H., Jr. “United Methodism two years after 25% of churches disaffiliated.” Baptist News Global, 5 May 2026. https://baptistnews.com/article/united-methodism-two-years-after-25-of-churches-disaffiliated/
- The United Methodist Church. “Our History.” https://www.umc.org/en/who-we-are/history
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Facts and Statistics: United States” (as of 31 December 2025). https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states; “2025 Statistical Report.” https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/2025-statistical-report
- “United States membership statistics (LDS Church).” Wikipedia, table of yearly U.S. membership from the church newsroom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_membership_statistics_(LDS_Church)
- Assemblies of God (USA). “About the AG.” https://ag.org/about/about-the-AG; AG News, “Good News You Can Use — Statistics and Trends Worth Celebrating,” March 2026. https://news.ag.org/en/articles/news/2026/03/good-news-you-can-use-statistics-and-trends-worth-celebrating
- The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Annual Report 2024, “Rosters and Statistics.” https://files.lcms.org/dl/f/annual-report-2024
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “History of the ELCA.” https://www.elca.org/about/history
- Paulsen, David. “Episcopal Church reports no baptized membership data for 2024, citing parochial report ‘confusion.’” Episcopal News Service, 29 October 2025. https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2025/10/29/episcopal-church-reports-no-baptized-membership-data-for-2024-citing-parochial-report-confusion/
- Ferguson, Mike. “The PC(USA) is still home to more than 1 million members.” Presbyterian News Service, 29 June 2026. https://pcusa.org/news-storytelling/news/2026/6/29/pcusa-still-home-more-1-million-members
- Hartford Institute for Religion Research. “Fast Facts on American Religion.” https://hirr.hartfordinternational.edu/fast-facts-on-american-religion/
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