When selecting more than one component from the same geographical level, Social Explorer provides a total for these components in the "All Selected Geographies" column. This total is for the available geographies only within the same geographical level. When a value is missing from one or more components from the same geographical level, Social Explorer denotes it with an asterisk (*) in the All Selected Geographies column.

• Congregational "adherents" include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services or participate in the congregation.
• The historically African American denominations are not included in the 2000 congregation and membership totals.
• [More information on this data source]

• The "Unadjusted Totals" come from the 2000 adherent totals collected by representatives of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). While quite comprehensive, this data excludes most of the historically African-American denominations and some other major groups. As a result, these numbers will be an underestimate of the total adherence rate, particularly in areas with a large African-American population.
• The "Adjusted Totals" include all adherents in the denominations counted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and estimates adherent totals for the historically African-American denominations and other religious groups not listed in the ASARB totals. An article by Roger Finke and Christopher P. Scheitle (2005) reviews how these estimates were computed.
• [More Information on this Data Source]

Sources

The religion data used in our reports are from three sources:

• 1980 data were collected by the Glenmary Research Center and include statistics for 111 Judeo-Christian church bodies, including number of churches and adherents. These data originally appeared in Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1980, published by the Glenmary Research Center. Most historically African American denominations are not included in the 1980 congregation and membership totals.
• 1990 data were collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and includes statistics for 132 religious groups, including number of churches and adherents. These data originally appeared in Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1990, published by the Glenmary Research Center
• 2000 data were collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and includes statistics for 149 religious groups, including number of churches and adherents. These data originally appeared in Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States, 2000, published by the Glenmary Research Center. Historically African American denominations are not included in the 2000 congregation and membership totals.
• Data from the 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Survey and the 1990, 1980, 1971, and 1952 Church and Church Membership collections can be downloaded free of charge from the ARDA's data archive.