Religionists (particularly Xians) often shout that their sheer numbers make them right... or, at least, their sheer numbers mean that the majority rules and we should all be stuck living our lives the way they say. The ignorant Xian email shows this idea quite plainly.

I started wondering about this. That email claims that only 14% of us don't believe in a God of some sort, although I've been familiar with "at least 10%." I decided to check up on the official statistics, and opted to go with a 10% number just to be fair.

Using the Official Numbers
The Yearbook. The numbers I used come from the 1996 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, a publication by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. These numbers were the most recent I had available, and were researched using Microsoft Bookshelf 98, which in turn referenced this information from the The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1997. The YACC compiles information about various denominations, specifically the numbers of churches and total membership of the denominations. It certainly seems that the National Council easily qualifies as an authority on this subject. After all, this is not a university study, not a random poll, not a survey taken on the Internet, and not a pile of "best guesses." But it is a one-sided set of numbers in that it is reported by a body that tracks church numbers, and these numbers are freely reported by the churches to the National Council. It truly doesn't get any more accurate than that. (Note that the figures I cite are for the United States only; they do not include Canada. The almanac article was entitled "Membership of Religious Groups in the U.S.")

The Census. To be fair, I used United States Census numbers from 1990. This is because there was no 1996 Census; they do them on years ending in zero, so 2000 was the next year. I didn't have the National Council numbers for 2000, so I gave lower population figures in favor of the National Council's numbers.

The text from the Bookshelf entry states: "Membership figures generally are based on reports made by officials of each group and are not based on any religious census. Membership figures from other sources may vary. Many groups keep careful records; others only estimate. Not all groups report annually. Christian church membership figures reported in this table are inclusive and refer to all members, not simply full communicants or confirmed members. Definitions of membership vary from one denomination to another. Only data reported within the past 10 years are included."

The Numbers. As such, here's how it sums up:

• 1990 population in the USA was 248,718,301
• 1996 church membership was 168,900,359
• Those not members roughly 79,817,942
• 10% of population Atheists = 24,871,830 (if it's really 14%, the number would be 34,820,562)
• The Roman Catholic Church has the most members, claiming 60,000,000.
• The next highest membership is the Southern Baptists at 15,614,060

If the numbers are correct, nobody except the Roman Catholics exceed Atheists. So, if we go on sheer numbers, the Roman Catholics should be calling all the shots. I'm willing to bet that all the Protestant denominations would have something to say about that! Of course, all the various Protestant denominations (totaling over 108 million) could suddenly be buddy-buddy with each other and claim they all feel the same way and should be in charge (despite the fact that the vast differences in beliefs and practices of the various Protestant denominations shows that they all believe in different Gods, and often think other denominations are completely wrong).

Duplicates: Rounding Up
Now, how many duplicate numbers do we have?

Rounding off the numbers. Most of these churches appear to be rounding off their numbers; lots end in 000, after all. How many individual churches were rounding up their numbers? For instance, the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., lists 33,000 churches and 8,200,000 members. It's safe to say those numbers are estimates, and the tendency is to round up, not down. 33,000 churches could mean 32,812, for all we know. But let's assume there are exactly 33,000, for easy math's sake... with 8.2 million members (exactly 8.2 million!), that figures to be about almost 250 people per church. The average church might have 242 members, but the extra 8 per church makes a big difference—over a quarter million more!

What difference can that make? That seems like piddly stuff, and of course we have no way of proving such speculations; it is more likely that a smaller church is going to give more concrete estimates, but that a church with 1,185 is probably more likely to round up to 1,200. For the sake of argument, let's go with the estimate above—that of the 8,200,000 members, 264,000 are round-ups and thus not real people. If that estimate can be used across the board, it being 1/31 of the total number of alleged National Baptists, to apply to all churches, we could expect to reduce the 168,900,359 number by 1/31... meaning 5,448,398 people would be round-ups—an thus not exist.

Has-beens and multiple memberships. As well, how many people are on the list as a member of their church who no longer are? How about people who changed churches for whatever reason and are left on the list? I believe I am still on my old church's membership list, which is twenty years out of date. I know of many folks who moved and changed churches but still retain membership in their original church. For that matter, I know of people who attend multiple churches as habit. In short, how many are being counted where they shouldn't be, and how many are being counted twice? Food for thought.

Silent Atheists
But what about silent Atheists? How many of us are out there afraid to admit their Atheism in the vicious world of insane Xians? I know I was when I was younger. I know many Atheists who were also afraid to "come out"; I know many who still are. Instead, they claimed whatever religion they were brought up to believe in... perhaps the religion they currently practiced, going to church with the family and smiling and pretending (like so many of us did). How many people think it's nonsense, who don't believe, who appease a spouse or satisfy a friend, or who don't want to :make waves?"

I suspect there are many. After all, the 1990 population was over 248 million, but only about 169 million are accounted for by church members. With nearly 25 million Atheists and the like, that still leaves 55 million "undecided" folks. What do THEY believe? Or NOT BELIEVE?

If we wanted to play "Grand Assumptions," then we could easily argue that the 55 million unaccounted for are Atheists. That would bolster our numbers to nearly 80 million. Heck, to beat the Roman Catholics, we only have to have 35 million of those 55 million. I'm a betting man, I suppose... but I think we can count on 7/11 of the unaccounted-for 55 million as being Atheist, Agnostic, Freethinker, Humanist, or any other non-Xian religion.

If 35 million are indeed Atheist, and the 14% number is correct, then suddenly Atheist numbers would jump to nearly 70 million... more than the Roman Catholics. I bet if that were the case, the fundmentalist Xians would have a much more different view on the majority ruling.

But who has the greatest numbers? And do the numbers matter? Of course not. Even if 99% of the population of the USA were the same exact religion and denomination, we still cannot persecute that one person. We still cannot have God all over our money and in our pledge. For that matter, even if EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the country were the same religion and denomination, it wouldn't matter. We'd still have to protect the rights of those who may one day be here... and choose not to believe the same way. That's the only way to be fair about it. It's also the only legal way that observes the Establishment Clause and keeps the governments noses well out of religion... where it belongs.

List of church denominations and memberships (Source: 1996 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, cited by The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1997, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98.)
 

RELIGIOUS GROUP	MEETING PLACES	MEMBERS	AVG. # /PLACE	TOTAL OF DENOM.
Adventist churches:
Advent Christian Ch.	328	27,300	83
Ch. of God Gen. Conf. (Oregon, IL; Morrow, GA)	89	5,195	58
Primitive Advent Christian Ch.	10	345	35
Seventh-day Adventist Ch.	4,303	775,349	180
				808,189
American Rescue Workers	16	35,000	2,188
Apostolic Christian Ch. (Nazarene)	63	3,723	59
Apostolic Christian Churches of America	80	11,450	143
Baha’i Faith1		300,000
Baptist churches:				350,173
American Baptist Assn.	1,705	250,000	147
American Baptist Chs. in the U.S.A.	5,686	1,507,934	265
Baptist Bible Fellowship Intl.	3,600	1,500,000	417
Baptist General Conference	813	135,128	166
Baptist Missionary Assn. of America	1,360	230,171	169
Conservative Baptist Assn. of America	1,084	200,000	185
Free Will Baptists, Natl. Assn. of	2,496	207,576	83
General Assn. of Regular Baptist Chs.	1,458	136,380	94
General Baptists, General Assn. of	876	74,156	85
Liberty Baptist Fellowship	100	*		4,241,345
Natl. Baptist Convention of America	2,500	3,500,000	1,400
Natl. Baptist Convention, U.S.A.	33,000	8,200,000	248
Natl. Missionary Baptist Convention of America	*	2,500,000
North American Baptist Conference	263	43,236	164
Progressive National Baptist Convention	2,000	2,500,000	1,250
Separate Baptists in Christ	100	8,000	80
Seventh Day Baptist General Conference	86	4,400	51
Southern Baptist Convention	39,863	15,614,060	392
Sovereign Grace Baptists	300	3,000	10
				32,372,696
Brethren (German Baptists):
Brethren Ch. (Ashland, OH)	121	13,028	108
Fellowship of Grace Brethren Chs.	273	32,229	118
Church of the Brethren	1,127	144,282	128
Old German Baptist Brethren	58	5,622	97
				195,161
Brethren, River:
Brethren in Christ Ch.	198	18,152	92
United Zion Ch.	13	852	66
				19,004
Buddhist Churches of America1		780,000
Christian Catholic Church	3	*
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	3,933	937,644	238
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	5,579	1,070,616	192
Christian Congregation	1,437	112,437	78
Christian and Missionary Alliance	1,943	302,414	156
Christian Nation Church U.S.A.	5	200	40
Christian Union, Churches of Christ in	240	10,400	43
Church of Christ, Scientist	2,400	*
Churches of Christ	13,013	1,651,103	127
Churches of God:
Chs. of God, General Conference	352	31,862	91
Ch. of God (Anderson, IN)	2,314	216,117	93
Ch. of God (Seventh Day), Denver, CO	160	5,700	36
Ch. of God in Christ Which He Purchased With His Own Blood	7	800	114
Ch. of God by Faith	145	8,235	57
				262,714
Church of the Nazarene	5,516	597,841	108
Community Churches, Intl. Council of	423	500,000	1,182
Congregational Christian Chs.	405	90,000	222
Conservative Congregational Christian Conference	201	36,864	183
Eastern Orthodox churches:
Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America	2	1,875	938
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Ch.	78	19,321	248
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America	184	300,000	1,630
Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Ch. of the East, N.A. Diocese	22	120,000	5,455
Armenian Apostolic Ch. of America	32	150,000	4,688
Armenian Church of Amer., Diocese of the	72	414,000	5,750
Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Ch.	9	1,100	122
Coptic Orthodox Ch.	85	180,000	2,118
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America	535	1,950,000	3,645
Orthodox Ch. in America	600	2,000,000	3,333
Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America	37	65,000	1,757
Serbian Orthodox Ch. in U.S.A. & Canada	68	67,000	985
Syrian Orthodox Ch. of Antioch (Archdiocese of the U.S.A. and Canada)	17	32,500	1,912
True Orthodox Church of Greece (SOMC), American Exarchate	9	1,080	120
				5,301,876
Episcopal Church	7,388	2,504,682	339
Evangelical Church	134	12,458	93
Evangelical Congregational Church	151	23,504	156
Evangelical Covenant Church	597	89,511	150
Evangelical Free Church of America	1,213	227,290	187
Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches	23	1,343	58
Fire Baptized Holiness Church (Wesleyan)	49	692	14
Friends:
Evangelical Friends International, North American	246	26,322	107
Friends General Conference	550	31,500	57
Friends United Meeting	*	50,803
				108,625
Grace Gospel Fellowship	128	60,000	469
Hindu1		910,000
Independent Fundamental Churches of America	670	69,857	104
Islam1		5,100,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses	10,307	945,990	92
Jewish organizations:
Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Re-form)	876	1,300,000	1,484
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America	1,200	1,000,000	833
United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, The	800	2,000,000	2,500
				4,300,000
Latter-day Saints:
Ch. of Jesus Christ (Bickertonites)	63	2,707	43
The Ch. of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)	10,218	4,613,000	451
Reorganized Ch. of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	1,001	150,143	150
				4,765,850
Liberal Catholic Ch.-Province of the U.S.A.	34	2,800	82
Lutheran churches:
Apostolic Lutheran Ch. of America	60	7,700	128
Ch. of the Lutheran Brethren of America	119	25,548	215
Ch. of the Lutheran Confession	71	8,864	125
Conservative Lutheran Assn.	8	1,047	131
Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Ch.	23	3,989	173
Evangelical Lutheran Ch. in America	10,973	5,199,048	474
Evangelical Lutheran Synod	128	25,379	198
Free Lutheran Congregations, Assn. of	234	30,769	131
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	55	12,446	226
Lutheran Ch.— Missouri Synod	6,148	2,596,927	422
Lutheran Chs., American Assn. of	94	22,061	235
Protestant Conference (Lutheran)	7	1,150	164
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	1,251	414,874	332
				8,349,802
Mennonite churches:
Beachy Amish Mennonite Chs.	95	6,968	73
Church of God in Christ (Mennonite)	90	10,742	119
Evangelical Mennonite Ch.	29	4,228	146
Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches	14	1,925	138
Hutterian Brethren	395	41,475	105
Mennonite Brethren Chs., The Conf. of	147	19,218	131
Mennonite Church	1,099	95,591	87
Mennonite Ch., The General Conference	221	32,782	148
Old Order Amish Ch.	898	80,820	90
				293,749
Methodist churches:
African Methodist Episcopal Ch.	8,000	3,500,000	438
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Ch.	3,098	1,230,842	397
Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection	120	2,056	17
Evangelical Methodist Ch.	132	8,500	64
Free Methodist Ch. of North America	1,050	74,585	71
Fundamental Methodist Ch.	12	787	66
Primitive Methodist Ch., U.S.A.	79	7,298	92
Southern Methodist Ch.	126	7,876	63
United Methodist Ch.	36,559	8,584,125	235
The Wesleyan Church (U.S.A.)	1,609	116,763	73
				13,532,832
Metropolitan Community Churches, Universal Fellowship of	291	30,000	103
Missionary Church	300	28,821	96
Moravian churches:
Moravian Ch. in America, Northern Prov.	95	27,713	292
Moravian Ch. in America, Southern Prov.	56	21,513	384
Unity of the Brethren	26	2,602	100
				110,649
Natl. Organization of the New Apostolic Ch. of North America	554	41,863	76
Natl. Spiritualist Assn. of Churches	143	3,634	25
Old Catholic churches:
Christ Catholic Ch.	8	1,018	127
Pentecostal churches:
Apostolic Faith Mission (Portland, OR)	54	4,500	83
Apostolic Faith Mission Ch. of God	28	11,000	393
Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God	160	12,369	77
Assemblies of God	11,764	2,324,615	198
Bible Church of Christ	6	6,850	1,142
Church of God (Cleveland, TN)	5,918	722,541	122
Church of God in Christ	15,300	5,499,875	359
Church of God of Prophecy	2,005	70,570	35
Congregational Holiness Ch.	190	2,468	13
Elim Fellowship	66	*
Intl. Ch. of the Foursquare Gospel	1,710	222,658	130
Open Bible Standard Chs.	361	45,988	127
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World	1,760	1,000,000	568
Pentecostal Church of God	1,209	113,400	94
Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Ch.	163	18,500	113
United Pentecostal Ch. Intl.	3,730	550,000	147
				1,950,546
Polish National Catholic Church	156	150,000	962
Presbyterian churches:
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Ch. (General Synod)	206	38,936	189
Cumberland Presbyterian Ch.	772	90,125	117
Evangelical Presbyterian Ch.	177	56,499	319
Korean Presbyterian Church in America	203	26,988	133
Orthodox Presbyterian Ch.	181	20,151	111
Presbyterian Ch. in America	1,263	257,556	204
Presbyterian Ch. (U.S.A.)	11,399	3,698,136	324
Reformed Presbyterian Ch. of N. America	70	5,657	81
				4,194,048
Reformed churches:
Christian Reformed Ch. in N. America	737	211,154	287
Hungarian Reformed Ch. in America	27	9,780	362
Netherlands Reformed Congregations	15	4,374	292
Reformed Ch. in America	915	309,459	338
Reformed Ch. in the U.S.	36	4,172	116
United Church of Christ	6,180	1,501,310	243
				2,040,249
Reformed Episcopal Church	83	6,565	79
Roman Catholic Church	19,723	60,190,605	3,052
Salvation Army	1,222	443,246	363
Schwenkfelder Church	5	2,577	515
Swedenborgian Church	50	2,423	48
Unitarian Universalist Assn.	1,020	141,315	139
United Brethren:
United Brethren in Christ	239	24,671	103
Vedanta Societies	13	2,500	192
Total number of meeting places:	342,976
Total number of all members:		168,900,359
Total number of members in subdenominations:				83,197,508
Average people per meeting place:	492.455

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