The Census Bureau and American Congregations
In the nineteenth century, the U.S. government collected data about churches as part of its decennial population census, but when Congress created the Census Bureau as a permanent agency in 1902, it authorized it to undertake a separate decennial survey of “religious bodies.” Every ten years from 1906 to 1946, the U.S. Census Bureau surveyed congregations, synagogues, and other religious groups in the United States.
While the Census Bureau published summary reports from that data, the forms (or schedules) filled out by each congregation have not been widely used. Only the schedules from the 1926 Census survive, housed in a collection at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC.
These schedules are a rich source of information about American religious institutions in the early twentieth century. They contain a wealth of information about each congregation, including its membership by age and sex, its expenditures on buildings and missions, its minister’s name and whether he or she had gone to seminary, and its denominational affiliation, which the Census Bureau cataloged into 213 different groups. The schedules also include the location of the congregations, usually by county and city or town, and in many cases the street address as well.
Totals
164,028 schedules digitized (70.7% of total)
217 denominations
3,112 counties
Schedules per denomination (top 25)
Denomination | Schedule count |
---|---|
Methodist Episcopal Church | 26,055 |
Southern Baptist Convention | 23,129 |
Methodist Episcopal Church, South | 19,465 |
Negro Baptists A | 18,281 |
Northern Baptist Convention | 7,676 |
Protestant Episcopal Church | 7,209 |
Disciples of Christ | 6,056 |
Churches of Christ | 5,503 |
Congregational Churches | 4,010 |
Primitive Baptists | 3,553 |
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States | 2,963 |
Evangelical Church | 2,665 |
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America | 2,547 |
Seventh-day Adventist Denomination | 1,980 |
Methodist Protestant Church | 1,446 |
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin and Other States | 1,309 |
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | 1,230 |
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America | 1,203 |
Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America | 1,179 |
Negro Baptists B | 1,079 |
Christian Church (General Convention of the Christian Church) | 1,044 |
Church of the Brethren (Conservative Dunkers) | 1,030 |
Free Will Baptists | 1,025 |
Congregational Methodist Church | 923 |
Colored Primitive Baptists | 922 |
Schedules per county (top 25)
County | Schedule count |
---|---|
Cook, Illinois | 1,223 |
Los Angeles, California | 808 |
Jefferson, Alabama | 556 |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 548 |
Allegheny, Pennsylvania | 509 |
Wayne, Michigan | 459 |
Middlesex, Massachusetts | 353 |
Erie, New York | 344 |
New York, New York | 339 |
Shelby, Tennessee | 330 |
Baltimore City, Maryland | 314 |
Kings, New York | 313 |
Cuyahoga, Ohio | 312 |
Marion, Indiana | 279 |
Harris, Texas | 273 |
Jefferson, Kentucky | 272 |
Essex, New Jersey | 268 |
Hamilton, Ohio | 264 |
Davidson, Tennessee | 261 |
Pulaski, Arkansas | 256 |
Dallas, Texas | 249 |
Spartanburg, South Carolina | 247 |
Essex, Massachusetts | 239 |
District Of Columbia | 238 |
Fulton, Georgia | 238 |