Mainline Protestant - Statistics

Statistics

Protestant churches as a whole have held steady in total membership in the last half century, but since the national population has grown they have shrunk from 63% of the population in 1970 to 54% by 2000. The Mainline denominations comprised 55% of all Protestants in 1973, and 46% in 1998.

While the term "mainline" once implied a certain numerical majority or dominant presence in mainstream society, that is no longer the case. Both evangelical and fundamentalist Christian groups have been growing, but mainline Christianity—both membership and worship attendance—has been shrinking.

The number of mainline congregations in the U. S. declined from more than 80,000 churches in the 1950s to about 72,000 in 2008. About 40% of Mainline Protestants in the 1990s were active in church affairs, compared to 46% of the conservatives.

Various causes have been cited, including monotonous and ponderous liturgies, intimidating worship surroundings, and too much tradition. Behaviorally, only one-third (31 percent) of mainline adults believe they have a personal responsibility to discuss their faith with people who have different beliefs. Tenure of pastors in mainline churches tends to be somewhat brief. On average, these pastors last four years before moving to another congregation. That is about half the average among Protestant pastors in non-mainline churches.