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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

225,824 schedules digitized (97.3% of total)

217 denominations

3,112 counties

Schedules per denomination (top 25)

DenominationSchedule count
Methodist Episcopal Church26,075
Southern Baptist Convention23,133
Negro Baptists A20,120
Roman Catholic Church19,559
Methodist Episcopal Church, South18,323
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 Christ5,506
Congregational Churches5,013
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States3,834
United Lutheran Church in America3,659
Presbyterian Church in the United States3,520
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America2,551
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church2,517
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church2,466
Primitive Baptists2,269
Methodist Protestant Church2,238
Church of the United Brethren in Christ2,197
Evangelical Church2,050
Seventh-day Adventist Denomination1,980
Church of Christ, Scientist1,912
Reformed Church in the United States1,710

Schedules per county (top 25)

CountySchedule count
Cook, Illinois1,797
Los Angeles, California1,248
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania1,181
Allegheny, Pennsylvania1,157
Jefferson, Alabama797
Wayne, Michigan719
Cuyahoga, Ohio594
Kings, New York584
New York, New York582
Erie, New York558
Middlesex, Massachusetts554
Baltimore City, Maryland553
St. Louis City, Missouri501
Hamilton, Ohio491
Schuylkill, Pennsylvania458
Shelby, Tennessee456
Westmoreland, Pennsylvania456
Worcester, Massachusetts448
Luzerne, Pennsylvania435
Jackson, Missouri426
Lancaster, Pennsylvania418
Jefferson, Kentucky387
Marion, Indiana386
Westchester, New York383
Fulton, Georgia378