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Churches have found demographic statistics invaluable.

Paulette Villarreal does a lot of demographics. An information specialist with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, she provides hundreds of free reports each month to churches within the largest U.S. denomination.

NAMB offers a lot of statistical and strategic resources for ministry based on a particular demographic. The NAMB Web site points users to data from the Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States: 2000 report, available from the American Religion Data Archive, which provides information on religious affiliations and activities in a particular area.

Getting the data

This story and all the great free content on ChurchCentral is supported by: Percept For information about Percept's line of demographic resources, including the Ministry Area Profile, which is relied upon by 40,000 U.S. churches, visit www.Percept.info or call 800-442-6277.

Do-it-yourself demographers can access these and census reports on the Internet, but many denominational offices — such as the Illinois Great Rivers United Methodist Conference's — have come to rely on private companies that supply further information and continually updated statistics.

In IGRUMC's office of congregational development, demographics are an everyday part of overseeing its 946 churches. Cam McKinney, who works for director Dr. Sherry Daniels, said whether information is needed for building projects or community research, demographic studies are a first step.

“When a church approaches us for anything, I download their Ministry Area Profile,” McKinney said.

The conference uses a church demography company called Percept Demographics. Reports include information about faith involvement, primary household concerns and church preferences, along with age, education, income, diversity, growth, family structure and other characteristics of a particular community.

McKinney said understanding a group of people changes ministry for them. “Our challenge is to make disciples for Christ, and we've go to know how. We can't know how until we know who we're dealing with.”

Following sure signs of growth in their area, the Foothills Presbytery of Greenville, S.C., used a study from another church demography company, Visions-Decisions. Bill Lancaster, who works with church health and growth at Foothills, overseeing 66 churches, said the congregations were interested in both new development and redevelopment.

“We feel like we have an opportunity for Jesus Christ to be able to respond to the growth that's coming our way,” Lancaster said.

For the Baptist General Convention of Texas, demographic studies are a part of their aggressive church planting goals. Strategist Fred Ater of the Missional Church Center works with both planters and partners among the state's 5,700 congregations to identify the needs of people in a particular area, and to discover how a new ministry can meet those needs.

“We learn quite a bit from the demographics,” he said. Ater also uses the Ministry Area Profiles from Percept. But he said that is only the beginning of understanding a community. He also drives around neighborhoods and issues door-to-door questionnaires to people. He talks with city planners about future growth and development, and looks for ethnic groups and changes in population.

Although he oversees some 250 new church plants each year in Texas, they are not enough to keep pace with the growing state.

“We could double that number in the next 20 years and still be reaching the same percentage of people,” Ater said. The demographics information is a good motivator.”