The Episcopal Church’s newly released 2024 Parochial Report analysis presents a new approach to churchwide data collection, providing a broader look into the life of congregations and churchwide programs, initiatives, and activities that happen each week. This included new questions about congregational finance and for the first time measured carbon footprint and online and weekday attendance. 

The Parochial Report is the oldest, most continuous gathering of data by The Episcopal Church. The analysis report is posted here. More than 94% of congregations submitted data.

The 2024 report reflects responses to new and revised questions that were compiled by former members of the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church and approved by the Executive Council in October 2023 and January 2024. The committee experimented with new ways to ask about and count total churchwide membership, and the data collected revealed confusion in how churches understood and reported this topline number. The presiding officers are collaborating to devise a process that provides clearer data on total membership in future years.

The 2024 findings also tracked these two historical trends:

• In-person average Sunday attendance continues to rebound after a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic; numbers show attendance (totaling 413,034) is back to the previous point of overall decline being experienced prior to mid-2020.
• For the first time in the last decade, total expenses (over $2.545 billion) are greater than total income (over $2.517 billion). While donations made through offering plates and pledges continue to rise, those account for just over half of the income received, with restricted contributions and other forms of revenue composing the remaining 43%. The median average pledge amount is $3,093. 

The 2024 data collection also allowed for first-time consistent reporting of online worship engagement and weekday attendance. Episcopal churches showed an online average Sunday attendance of 121,545; the average in-person weekday attendance was 183,156, and the average weekday online attendance was 75,103.

In addition, responses to new questions about endowments, debt, and building usage “help provide a more holistic understanding of the financial life of parishes,” notes the data analysis report prepared by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

Nearly 75% of congregations report having an endowment or investment account. Just over 21% report having debt (median around $55,000)—mainly due to infrastructure maintenance, mortgages, and capital improvement projects. Almost 83% of congregations own buildings and/or land; just over half of those rent or lease space to outside groups, earning an annual median revenue of about $13,000 and incurring annual median expenses of about $700.

For the first time, the report tracks responses to the following questions:

• How is your parish reducing your carbon footprint?
  Of the 4,216 responses, efforts toward energy efficiency were most frequently mentioned. Other themes include recycling and waste reduction; water conservation; and paper reduction and digital communications.
• What is one program or initiative at your church that represents your hope for the future of your congregation or the greater Episcopal Church?
  Of the 4,444 responses, more than half describe social justice initiatives; others describe youth and children’s ministries; worship and music; and Christian education and lifelong discipleship programs.

Some additional details in the report include:                 

• Open parishes and missions: 6,707
• Median age: 60
• Median percent White: 95
• Clergy: 9,717
• Staff: 27,360
• Parishes with a deacon: 1,803
• Confirmations: 12,600
• Baptisms: 19,624
• Congregations with schools: 997
• Congregations that offer simultaneous services in more than one language: 243
• Congregations engaging people through outreach ministries: 4,576

The report also includes the number of congregations engaged in various services, programs, and initiatives; statistics on worship leaders and nontraditional clergy situations; Christmas and Easter attendance; and more.

The Parochial Report, in accordance with Canon I.6, is developed by the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church, authorized by the Executive Council, and overseen by the executive officer of the General Convention. The Parochial Report is part of the General Convention Office’s data collection and analysis work, directed by Interim Executive Officer Molly James and assisted by Data Specialist Iris DiLeonardo.

Questions? Email reports@episcopalchurch.org.