"No denomination has ever constituted a majority in
the United States as a whole. In this sense all denominations are minorities..." M J. Gunn
Overview:
Little precise information is known about the size of religious faith groups
in the U.S. Members of the Church of Satan and
Christian Scientists do not release their membership
data. Most of the other groups do publish their total membership.
However, there is no standardization of reporting methods:
Some count only the number of active members.
Others count everyone who has ever been baptized, even though they may not
have darkened the door of that church in many decades.
Still others inflate their figures.
A better way of estimating the size of religious groups might be through
the use of telephone sampling, such as is done on the periodic ARIS and Pew
surveys. However, these also have inaccuracies:
Even with a sample size of 50,000 adults, relatively few
members of small groups like
Unitarian Universalists or
Quakers will be contacted. As a result, the estimated size of small
faith groups will lack accuracy.
Followers of some faith groups, like Wicca and Islam may not readily admit their religious affiliation to a stranger over the
phone because of the danger of persecution.
Findings of the ARIS studies: Religious identification in the U.S.;
How American adults view themselves(Personal
religious identification, shifts, religious vs. secular, switching, inter-faith marriage, geographical
distribution, etc.) This survey was completed in 1990, 2001, and 2008. << A big section