Church membership

[wellinghall]

In 1990, the Church of England had:
- an electoral roll membership of 1.4 million
- about 1.1m regularly attending Sunday services.

In 1992, the church had:
- 106 bishops
- 10,748 full-time stipendiary clergy (of which 707 were women)
- over 16,000 churches and places of worship.

In addition, the UK also had:
- 5.8m members of the Roman Catholic Church (now adjusted to exclude Ireland)
- 3.2m members of other churches.

In 2006, the church had:
- an electoral roll membership of 1.3m
- about 1.3m regularly attending Sunday services.

At the end of 2007, the church had:
- 106 bishops
- 9,543 full-time stipendiary clergy (of which 1,543 were women)
- over 16,000 churches etc.

In addition, the UK also had:
- 1.6m mass attendees in the Roman Catholic Church (NB different definition than the much larger figure given above)
- 3.3m members of other churches.

ETA: figures for other churches are given with care, as I suspect there may have been some changes of definition or measurement over the years:

Church in Wales: 106,000 in the 1994 almanack, and 69,000 in the 2009 almanack
Episcopal Church in Scotland: 57,000 in 1994, 41,000 in 2009
Church of Ireland: 280,000 in 1994, 300,000 in 2009
Church of Scotland: 753,000 in 1994, 489,000 in 2009
African and afro-carribean churches: 69,000 in 1994; number given as "about 341" in 2009, which has to be an error!
Baptist Church: 212,000 in 1994, 170,000 in 2009
Methodist Church: 408,000 in 1994, 340,000 in 2009
Orthodox Church: not given in 1994, 292,000 in 2009
Pentecostal churches: 115,000 in 1994, 301,000 in 2009
Presbyterian Church in Ireland: 330,000 in 1994, 226,000 in 2009
United Reformed Church: 115,000 in 1994, 145,000 in 2009
Other churches: 300,000 in 1994, 733,000 in 2009

All figures obtained from Whitaker's Almanack for 1994 and 2009.

The icon, by the way, is the church that adaese and I got married in :-)

Comments

[estiel.livejournal.com]

1.6m mass attendees in the Roman Catholic Church (NB different definition than the much larger figure given above)

Yes, 5.8m "members" was a striking figure. Doubtless it is the same there as here: many people identify themselves as "Catholic" who aren't. They seem to think it's some sort of ethnic identity rather than a faith.

Possible explanation for the decline in male clergy numbers in the CofE: When women were ordained, thousands of clergy left the CofE and became Catholic priests through a papal dispensation that allowed them to be married (not without some resentment from celibate priests, but only mildly, and to an insignificant degree)