wfn.org | Membership Down Again in 1995

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3054 notes).

Note 3054 by UMNS on July 11, 1996 at 16:37 Eastern (2557 characters).

SEARCH: membership, decline, loss, statistics

  UMNS stories may be accessed on the Internet World Wide Web at:
                   http://www.umc.org/umns.html
 Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency
of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn.,
New York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                           340(10-21-71){3054}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             July 11, 1996

NOTE:  This story may be used as a sidebar to UMNS release #339
{3053}.

Membership drops by more than 50,000
in 1995; 13 conferences report gain

     NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Membership in the United Methodist
Church dropped by approximately 50,688 during 1995. 
     Unofficial figures gathered from annual conferences by
Newscope, weekly publication of the United Methodist Publishing
House, and United Methodist News Service, indicate the 1995 loss
is about 16,000 members less than in 1994.
     Thirteen of the 68 U.S. annual (regional) conferences
reported membership gains.  North Georgia led with a net growth of
4,179 -- the largest annual gain in the history of the conference.
Two Texas conferences -- Central and Southwest -- also had
substantial increases, 2,375 and 2,316 respectively. 
     Membership increased in Southwest Texas for the third
consecutive year and the 2.13 percent growth is reportedly the
highest in any United States annual conference.  Western North
Carolina grew by 2,205. 
     Other conferences recording growth were: Alabama-West
Florida, Alaska Missionary, Desert Southwest, Kentucky, Memphis,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Rio Grande.
     Fifty-five annual conferences suffered membership losses,
adding to the more than 30 years of membership decline in the
denomination.
     The largest decline -- 7,099 -- was reported by the New York
Conference followed by West Ohio, 4,744; Central Pennsylvania,
2,794; Central Illinois, 2,659; California-Pacific, 2,644; South
Indiana, 2,279; North Central New York, 2,221; and Nebraska,
2,150.
     The total lay membership in the United States is more than
8.6 million. In addition there are 38,000 United Methodist clergy
in the U.S. and approximately one million members outside the
United States.
     Official 1995 membership figures will be released later this
year by the denomination's General Council on Finance and
Administration.
                               # # #
     * Green is director of the Nashville Office of United
Methodist News Service.

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