The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-09-07
HURCH MEMBERSHIP
Statistics Show That the Number of
Catholics in the United States
Doubled in Fifteen Years and That
Protestants Increased About Fifty
Per Cent-Estimate of Catholic
Population Too Low.

! The statistics of church member
ship in the United States presented
by Prof. W. B. Bailey in the last of
his series of sociological chartlets in
| the Independent make a pleasing ex-
hibit. One wonders, says the Boston
Transcript, whether the statistics of
church attendance, if such were COM
| showing. According to the figures
over one-third of the population is en-
rolled in the membership of the
churches. The total number of com
municants, Protestant and Episcopal,
being 33,00O,OOO.
| The distribution of the church mem
bership between the Protestant de-
nominations and the Roman Catholic
Church is approximately in the ratio
of two to one, the Catholics number
ing roundly 100000. Among the
Protestant bodies the Methodists lead
with 5,750,OO0, closely pursued by the
Baptists with 5,660,000. The Luther
ans stand third with 2,112,O00 and the
Presbyterians hold fourth place with
| 1,830,000. It is rather surprising to
find the Disciples with 1,142,O0O, in
the lead of the Episcopalians, who
number only SS6,O00.A The Congrega-
tionalists hold seventh place with 7O0,-
900. The Unitarians do not appear at
all in the table, which includes only
denominations reporting over 100000
members.
The comparative increase of church
membership during the fifteen-year
period covered by the statistics, 1890
1906, shows some striking facts. The
membership of the Roman Catholic
Church almost doubled. All the lead
ing Protestant denominations except
the Methodist increased about so per
cent. The increase in the case of the
Mathodists was slightly in excess of
2assepar cent. ~s-. .ss..ss.s a. -
The statistics yield some strange
gleanings for the curious. 1t appears
that almost one-half of the member
ship of the Roman Catholic Church is
composed of males, while less than 40
per cent of the membership of the
Protestant churches is made up of
men. The seating capacity of the Ro-
man Catholic churches is much less
than the membership, the figures be-
ing 100000 and 100000, respec-
lively. The ratio of seating capacity
to membership is approximately re-
versed in the Protestant churches,
which offers seats to over 53,0O0,0OO,
while the membership is about TO-
100000. The total Stealing capacity
of both Catholic and Protestant
churches would accommodate about
! 70 per cent of the population at one
| time
| The number of ministers reported
is 164,S30, of whom only $4,000 are in
the Roman Catholic Church. The pro-
portion of clergy to laity in the Pro-
testant bodies is nearly one to one
hundred, while in the Roman Catholic
Church it is roughly one to one thou
sand.
In the foregoing the number of
Catholics in the United States is
placed at 100000. This falls far
below the actual number for the rea-
son that it includes only those who
are communicates, and does not take
into consideration the large number
of children belonging to the Church.
Protestant denominations reckon their
membership by the number of COM
municants; while Catholics count the
number of souls, and include both
children and adults. The official Cath
olic Directory places the number of
Catholics in the United States at 49,
015,569; but even this number is be-
ieved to be much lower than the
actual Catholic population. When we
take into account immigration and
natural increase, even the number CIV
en- in the Directory seems to be rather
below than above the actual number of
Catholics in the United States.
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