NEW YORK -- The Mormon church is among the United State's five largest religious bodies, according to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
The ranking might be debated, however, because the yearbook did not take into account the nation's largest black denomination, the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., which didn't report its membership. The rankings also omit Judaism and Islam, sizable faiths in America that don't provide membership figures, according to an Associated Press article.
The Mormon church, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reported 5.2 million U.S. members compared to 5.1 million reported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The Mormons reported gains of 408,827 during the past four years. The Roman Catholic Church posted the highest percentage increase among major denominations.
Roman Catholicism also remains the largest body, with more than 63 million members in the United States, followed by the Southern Baptist Convention at 15,960,308, the United Methodist Church at 8,340,954, and the Church of God in Christ at 5,499,875.
More liberal, Protestant groups continued to post losses, including the American Baptist Churches, Evangelical Lutherans, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and United Methodists.
The yearbook is compiled by the National Council of Churches and published by Abingdon Press.
