Since 1989 Outreach Canada has invested thousands of hours of intensive labour in compiling a database containing more than 24,000 Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches.  Each year information collected on individual congregations is updated.

Data collected includes: year began, name, meeting location, denomination, primary and secondary language used in service(s), membership and average worship attendance.

• The data presented in these particular graphs categorizes church size in four groups; under 75, 75-150, 151-350, and over 350. Four graphs reflect the changes in Protestant churches and four graphs reflect the changes in Evangelical churches for the years 1990, 1995, 1998 and 2003.  Whithin all Protestant churches there is an increase in the number of churches with an average worship attendance of less than 75.  There is, however, an increase in the number of Evangelical churches with an average worship attendance of both 151-350 and over 350.

• From this example of collected research, one can see the number and percentage of both Evangelical and Mainline churches that have indicated attendance to be between 1-74, 75-124, 125-249, ....  The years 1990, and 1998 have been shown to suggest differences and changes in this time period.   Attendance

• In addition, the data has been collected to reflect membership rather than attendance.   Membership

From the data we can recognize that of the churches that reported figures, Mainline churches tend to be larger than Evangelical churches by membership, but smaller than Evangelical churches by attendance.

• Data gathered also includes information which indicates the average attendance, as well as average membership for rural and urban Mainline and Evangelical churches.

Table of Urban vs. Rural data - Attendance 

Table of Urban vs. Rural data - Membership

• Average Church attendance for all reporting Evangelical churches rose from 120 in 1990, to 134.7 in 1998.  However, average church attendance for all reporting Mainline churches dropped from 128 in 1990, to 113 in 1998.  For both rural and urban churches reporting, evangelical churches showed an increase in average attendance while Mainline churches showed a decrease.   

• Average Church membership for all reporting Evangelical churches rose from 143.55 in 1990, to 154.6 in 1998.  For all reporting Mainline churches, membership dropped from 278.9 in 1990, to 244 in 1998.  While Evangelical churches in both urban and rural areas showed an increase in membership from 1991 to 1998, the membership numbers of Mainline churches for these areas showed a decrease.  

Downloads

Church Attendance

Church Membership

Table of Urban vs. Rural data - Attendance

Table of Urban vs. Rural data - Membership