Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1909 — WHAT THE CHURCH CENSUS ESTABLISHES. [ARTICLE]

WHAT THE CHURCH CENSUS ESTABLISHES.

Methodists Have Greatest Membership In Indiana, Catholics Second and Christians Third. Thirty-four and six-tenths per cent of the inhabitants of Indiana are church members, or were in 1906, when the special census of the churches of the country, which has just been made public, was taken. For the entire country, the percentage of church membership to population is 39.1. Nine hundred and thirty-eight thousand, four hundred and five church members were found in Indiana out of an estimated population of 2,710,898. • The number of organizations reporting was 6,829. The women outnumber the men in the churches in the state by 145,422. The total of female communicants being 514,938, as against 369,516 males. That ther'e is no lack of church facilities in the state, is shown by the fact that the 6,829 churches report a seating capacity of 2,132,181,-or more than two seats for each member. A total value of $31,081,500 is placed on the church property. Nine hundred and sixty-one organizations reported a total indebedness of $1,723,910. The total value of church parsonages is given as $3,623,538. Reports were received by the census bureau from 5,879 Sunday schools in the state, with 63,042 teachers and 516,809 scholars. In the state the Methodists lead with 24.9 per cent of the total membership, while the Roman Catholic church is second with 18.6 per cent of the total. The Diciples of Christ come third with 12.6 per cent of the total, the Baptists fourth with 9.9 per cent and the Presbyterians fifth with 6.2 per cent.