U.S. Protestant Majority Shows Drop in Gallup Poll

Protestant denominations still count the majority of Americans as members, but their numbers are dwindling and their membership is becoming increasingly fragmented, a new Gallup poll shows.

Although called the Protestant Establishment or mainline churches, the reality is that Protestants are a highly diverse group from all walks of life, representing many denominations and sects within denominations.

In 1967, two people in three, or 67%, gave a Protestant denomination as their religious preference, but today only a bare majority of 56% do so.

About one American in five is a Baptist, but members of the Baptist faithful epitomize the frequent Protestant tendency to resist central authority and to rely instead upon local congregational control of their religious affairs. Nine percent of adults say they are Southern Baptists, but 10% state a preference for another of the several Baptist conventions throughout the country.

Overall, the proportion of Baptists in U.S. society has declined slightly in 25 years, from 21% to 19%.

One person in 10 is now a Methodist, compared to one in 14 in 1967. Methodists are uniformly represented throughout all regions of the country.

Although Lutheran synods have been merging in recent years, there was only a slight decline in their membership between 1967 and 1992, from 7% to 6%. Lutherans are most numerous in the Midwest, where they represent 15% of the population.

Presbyterians also are fairly uniformly distributed throughout the land. Mergers and schisms have taken place in the Presbyterian tradition in recent years, and there is an apparent decline in their overall numbers from 6% in 1967 to 5% in 1992. The poll described the decline as “apparent” because in recent years, even steeper declines have been measured among Presbyterians, to the 2% to 4% level. It remains to be seen if the latest figures represent a true increase or are a statistical aberration.

Episcopalians held steady over 25 years, claiming about 2% of the overall population as adherents.

White Protestants are fairly evenly distributed among the mainstream Protestant denominations, but blacks tend most often to describe themselves as Baptists or Methodists. They also have a fair representation among the Presbyterian and Episcopalian faithful, but black Lutherans appear to be rare.

The findings are based on telephone and personal interviews with nationwide samples of 2,009 men and women, ages 18 and older, taken throughout 1992. The potential sampling error is 2% in either direction.