United Methodist Church - Membership Trends

Membership Trends

Like many other mainline Protestant denominations in the United States, the United Methodist Church has experienced significant membership losses in recent decades. At the time of its formation, the UMC had about 11 million members in nearly 42,000 congregations. In 1975, membership dropped below 10 million for the first time. In 2005, there were about 8 million members in over 34,000 congregations. Membership is concentrated primarily in the Midwest and in the South. Texas has the largest number of members, with about 1 million. The states with the highest membership rates are Oklahoma, Iowa, Mississippi, West Virginia, and North Carolina.

By the opening of the 2008 General Conference, total UMC membership was estimated at 11.4 million, with about 7.9 million in the U.S. and 3.5 million overseas. Significantly, about 20% of the conference delegates were from Africa, with Filipinos and Europeans making up another 10%. During the conference, the delegates voted to finalize the induction of the Methodist Church of the Ivory Coast and its 700,000 members into the denomination. Given current trends in the UMC—with overseas churches growing, especially in Africa, and U.S. churches collectively losing about 1,000 members a week—it has been estimated that Africans will make up at least 30% of the delegates at the 2012 General Conference, and it is also possible that 40% of the delegates will be from outside the U.S. One Congolese bishop has estimated that typical Sunday attendance of the UMC is higher in his country than in the entire United States.