Only 1 Percent of Religious Congregations Close Each Year, Study Finds

Tax-payer funded research shows few churches close each year, but concludes that church sustainability isn't necessarily good news

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Religious congregations in the United States have one of the lowest closure rates ever observed for any kind of organization, with only 1 percent on average going out of existence each year, according to a new study by researchers at Duke University and the University of Arizona.

That low mortality rate, however, is not necessarily good news for the nation's churches and synagogues, the study's authors cautioned.

"Normally, one would think such a low mortality rate means that congregations overall are unusually healthy organizations," said Mark Chaves, a sociologist at Duke and co-author of the study. "But we believe that's probably not the case. Instead, we think it means that congregations are a type of organization that has ways to stay alive even when they are very weak."

Mortality rates have been determined for many types of organizations in the past 20 years, including volunteer social service organizations (2.3 percent), California wineries (5 percent) and peace movement groups (9 percent). But this study, published in the June issue of The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, is believed to be the first for religious congregations.

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Senator Tom Coburn

Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security

340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796