U.S. United Methodist Membership Falls to About 3.81 Million in 2025: GCFA Report
The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) of The United Methodist Church has released its statistical report on U.S. churches for 2025 and launched a new data website, UMC Statistical Insights. According to figures published by GCFA and reported by UM News, the denomination's official news service, reported U.S. membership fell from about 3.988 million in 2024 to about 3.814 million in 2025, a drop of more than 170,000, or 4.36 percent.
The report is based on 20,158 U.S. congregations that filed reports for 2025, compared with 21,176 for 2024. Average in-person worship attendance declined from about 1.074 million in 2024 to about 1.041 million in 2025, while online attendance fell from about 1.037 million to about 986,000. All five U.S. jurisdictions saw decreases in membership and attendance. A GCFA spokesperson told The Christian Post that the declines reflected several factors, including removals and corrections through charge conference action, withdrawals, transfers to other congregations or denominations, deaths, and corrections of earlier reporting errors.
The report also recorded areas of growth. In 2025, 25,444 people joined through professions of faith by confirmation, up 1,363 or nearly 5.7 percent, most of them youth. Congregations sustained 63,589 ongoing small groups, up nearly 1.7 percent. Church closures fell by nearly 44 percent, from 960 in 2024 to 540, while 214 active congregations began as new church starts. Through food pantries, shelters, recovery groups, after-school programs, disaster response and other community ministries, United Methodist churches served neighbors more than 34.5 million times, offering 106,512 community ministries in total.
Globally, based on the most recent annual conference journals, GCFA reports about 10.3 million United Methodist members across the United States, Africa, Europe and the Philippines, down from an estimated 12.5 million in 2017. Caitlin Congdon, GCFA's top executive, said the agency hopes the analysis will encourage congregations and conferences as they review their ministries. (GSM, based on reporting by UM News and The Christian Post)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国德克萨斯州 Baytown 的一间联合卫理公会教堂（CC BY-SA 4.0，Wikimedia Commons） / A United Methodist church in Baytown, Texas, United States (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
