Unitarian*Universalism UUA Membership Statistics Update
Just a few days ago on February 23rd I blogged about how the only official UUA Membership Statistics for Unitarian*Universalist congregations that are publicly available and open to scrutiny on the official UUA web site are the better part of a decade old. The most recent membership numbers and other pertinent membership statistics provided on those UUA "church records" are for the 1999-2000 church year. Within a couple of days UU World magazine editor Chris Walton had seen fit to post some very recently updated official UUA congregational membership statistics on his Philocrites blog. I would encourage U*Us to go have a look at those very up-to-date UUA membership statistics and do the U*U math. . .
I take note of the fact that, as of February 1st 2008, the UUA's total number of certified congregations, including those with no financial contribution, is 986. This means that, one way or another. . . between the year 2000 when the UUA reported that it had 1,051 congregations and the beginning of 2008 the Unitarian*Universalist Association of Congregations aka the UUA somehow managed to "lose" no less than 65 U*U congregations. That averages out to a loss of about 8 Unitarian*Universalist congregations, "Welcoming Congregations" or otherwise. . . per year since the year 2000. I suppose that it is within possibility that this apparent "loss" of no less than 65 Unitarian*Universalist congregations within 8 years may have something to do with the split between the Canadian Unitarian Council and the Unitarian*Universalist Association of Congregations that took place in 2002. I can't help but notice however that no less than 11 Canadian Unitarian congregations are included in the most recent list of UUA certified congregations under the heading "International".
The web page that provides the UUA Data Services list of congregations that submitted membership numbers to the Unitarian*Universalist Association of Congregations this year provides a few buttons to conveniently organize this list of congregations according to several different categories including size. . . U*Us who are interested in doing some math may want to use the button that organizes this very recent list of Unitarian*Universalist congregations in order of their size and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. The numbers are not pretty. There are quite a number of U*U congregations with fewer than 50 members. A rough estimate, based on the position of the scrolling bar, would indicate that over 25% of Unitarian*Universalist congregations have 50 members or less. I will leave it up to U*Us to do more precise math. It seems that approximately 100 U*U congregations. i.e. more than 10% of Unitarian*Universalist "churches" have 25 members or less.
More later perhaps.
I take note of the fact that, as of February 1st 2008, the UUA's total number of certified congregations, including those with no financial contribution, is 986. This means that, one way or another. . . between the year 2000 when the UUA reported that it had 1,051 congregations and the beginning of 2008 the Unitarian*Universalist Association of Congregations aka the UUA somehow managed to "lose" no less than 65 U*U congregations. That averages out to a loss of about 8 Unitarian*Universalist congregations, "Welcoming Congregations" or otherwise. . . per year since the year 2000. I suppose that it is within possibility that this apparent "loss" of no less than 65 Unitarian*Universalist congregations within 8 years may have something to do with the split between the Canadian Unitarian Council and the Unitarian*Universalist Association of Congregations that took place in 2002. I can't help but notice however that no less than 11 Canadian Unitarian congregations are included in the most recent list of UUA certified congregations under the heading "International".
The web page that provides the UUA Data Services list of congregations that submitted membership numbers to the Unitarian*Universalist Association of Congregations this year provides a few buttons to conveniently organize this list of congregations according to several different categories including size. . . U*Us who are interested in doing some math may want to use the button that organizes this very recent list of Unitarian*Universalist congregations in order of their size and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. The numbers are not pretty. There are quite a number of U*U congregations with fewer than 50 members. A rough estimate, based on the position of the scrolling bar, would indicate that over 25% of Unitarian*Universalist congregations have 50 members or less. I will leave it up to U*Us to do more precise math. It seems that approximately 100 U*U congregations. i.e. more than 10% of Unitarian*Universalist "churches" have 25 members or less.
More later perhaps.
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