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
86,958 schedules digitized (37.5% of total)
215 denominations
3,112 counties
Schedules per denomination (top 25)
Denomination | Schedule count |
---|---|
Southern Baptist Convention | 22,489 |
Negro Baptists A | 11,165 |
Northern Baptist Convention | 7,612 |
Protestant Episcopal Church | 6,922 |
Methodist Episcopal Church | 6,577 |
Evangelical Church | 2,665 |
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America | 2,547 |
Disciples of Christ | 2,152 |
Seventh-day Adventist Denomination | 1,980 |
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States | 1,945 |
United Lutheran Church in America | 1,539 |
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin and Other States | 1,307 |
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | 1,226 |
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America | 1,203 |
Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America | 1,179 |
Free Will Baptists | 1,025 |
Evangelical Synod of North America | 914 |
Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America | 872 |
Congregational Methodist Church | 773 |
Church of God in Christ | 730 |
Society of Friends (Orthodox) | 713 |
Assemblies of God, General Council | 668 |
Wesleyan Methodist Connection (or Church) of America | 619 |
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of America: Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the United States of America | 494 |
General Baptists | 465 |
Schedules per county (top 25)
County | Schedule count |
---|---|
Cook, Illinois | 627 |
Allegheny, Pennsylvania | 432 |
Los Angeles, California | 421 |
Jefferson, Alabama | 385 |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 381 |
Wayne, Michigan | 323 |
Erie, New York | 262 |
Cuyahoga, Ohio | 258 |
Middlesex, Massachusetts | 251 |
New York, New York | 250 |
Marion, Indiana | 243 |
Kings, New York | 242 |
Hamilton, Ohio | 224 |
Baltimore City, Maryland | 220 |
Essex, New Jersey | 208 |
Lancaster, Pennsylvania | 193 |
Worcester, Massachusetts | 186 |
Westchester, New York | 180 |
Luzerne, Pennsylvania | 179 |
Franklin, Ohio | 177 |
District Of Columbia | 175 |
St. Louis, Minnesota | 171 |
Providence, Rhode Island | 166 |
Suffolk, Massachusetts | 165 |
Essex, Massachusetts | 164 |