Unitarian Universalism - Number of Members

Number of Members

As of February 2011, congregations in the United States totaled 1,018, and 1,046 when including two congregations in the U.S. Virgin Islands, 19 in Canada, six in other countries, plus 28 multi-denominational congregations affiliated with the UUA: 17 in Mass., four in Ill., three in N.H., two in Vt., and one each in Me. and D.C.. Seven of the ten US states with the most congregations are also among the most populous states; the state with the most congregations and members is the fourteenth most populous state, Massachusetts; Vermont is No. 1 relative to its total population. A map using 2010 U.S. Census data showing the relative number of congregations per 1 million people is posted here.

At the time of the merger between Universalists and Unitarians, membership was perhaps half a million. Membership rose after the merger but then fell in the 1970s.

In 1956, Sam Wells wrote that "Unitarians and Universalists are considering merger which would have total U.S. membership of 160,000 (500,000 in world)". In 1965 Conkin wrote that "In 1961, at the time of the merger, membership was 104,821 in 651 congregations, and the joint membership soared to its historically highest level in the mid-1960s (an estimated 250,000) before falling sharply back in the 1970s ". According to the 2008 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations claimed 214,738 members in 2002.

Estimates from the 1990s put world membership between 120,000 and 600,000.

In the United States, the American Religious Identification Survey reported 629,000 members describing themselves as Unitarian Universalist in 2001, an increase from 502,000 reported in a similar survey in 1990. The highest concentrations are in New England and around Seattle, Washington.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and featuring a sample size of over 35,000, puts the proportion of American adults identifying as Unitarian Universalist at 0.3%.

While the 2001 Canadian census done by Statistics Canada put Canadian Unitarians at 17,480, the latest membership statistics from the Canadian Unitarian Council show as of September 1, 2007 they had 5,150 "official" members.