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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

184,392 schedules digitized (79.4% of total)

217 denominations

3,112 counties

Schedules per denomination (top 25)

DenominationSchedule count
Methodist Episcopal Church26,074
Southern Baptist Convention23,152
Negro Baptists A19,038
Methodist Episcopal Church, South18,324
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America8,821
Northern Baptist Convention7,679
Protestant Episcopal Church7,237
Disciples of Christ6,830
African Methodist Episcopal Church6,011
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
Methodist Protestant Church1,446
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church1,269
Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America1,179
Negro Baptists B1,099
Christian Church (General Convention of the Christian Church)1,044
Church of the Brethren (Conservative Dunkers)1,030
Free Will Baptists1,025

Schedules per county (top 25)

CountySchedule count
Cook, Illinois1,567
Los Angeles, California879
Allegheny, Pennsylvania775
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania737
Jefferson, Alabama718
Wayne, Michigan504
Middlesex, Massachusetts411
Cuyahoga, Ohio407
Shelby, Tennessee399
Baltimore City, Maryland361
New York, New York359
Hamilton, Ohio357
Kings, New York351
Erie, New York342
Marion, Indiana323
Harris, Texas318
Worcester, Massachusetts311
Essex, New Jersey306
Jefferson, Kentucky299
Davidson, Tennessee292
Dallas, Texas292
Jackson, Missouri286
Fulton, Georgia284
Bristol, Massachusetts283
St. Louis City, Missouri281