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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

200,568 schedules digitized (86.4% of total)

217 denominations

3,112 counties

Schedules per denomination (top 25)

DenominationSchedule count
Methodist Episcopal Church26,074
Southern Baptist Convention23,133
Negro Baptists A18,843
Methodist Episcopal Church, South18,323
Roman Catholic Church9,651
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America8,821
Northern Baptist Convention7,679
Protestant Episcopal Church7,237
Disciples of Christ6,830
African Methodist Episcopal Church6,705
Churches of Christ5,505
Congregational Churches5,013
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States3,833
Presbyterian Church in the United States3,520
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America2,551
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church2,466
Primitive Baptists2,269
Evangelical Church2,050
Seventh-day Adventist Denomination1,980
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church1,945
Reformed Church in the United States1,709
Methodist Protestant Church1,446
Church of the Nazarene1,442
Church of the United Brethren in Christ1,219
Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America1,179

Schedules per county (top 25)

CountySchedule count
Cook, Illinois1,653
Los Angeles, California947
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania928
Allegheny, Pennsylvania806
Jefferson, Alabama775
Cuyahoga, Ohio537
Wayne, Michigan517
Erie, New York508
Shelby, Tennessee448
Worcester, Massachusetts418
Middlesex, Massachusetts413
New York, New York384
Kings, New York383
Luzerne, Pennsylvania381
Baltimore City, Maryland378
Lancaster, Pennsylvania366
Jefferson, Kentucky365
Hamilton, Ohio363
Marion, Indiana358
Harris, Texas343
Hennepin, Minnesota331
Essex, New Jersey324
Milwaukee, Wisconsin315
Westmoreland, Pennsylvania313
Davidson, Tennessee313