Churches in the United States — the numbers

We maintain 439,658 churches across the country. Below is what that looks like by state: raw count, count per 100,000 residents, and how complete the listings are. Updated October 2026.

Free to use. Quote any number here, in print or online, as long as you credit TheChurchesAtlas — a link is welcome, followed or nofollow, your choice. Journalists: if you need a cut we don't show — a single metro, a longer time range — write to contact@thechurchesatlas.com and you'll get it the same day. Full CSVs for this and our other categories: download the dataset on GitHub (CC BY 4.0).
Download the numbers. Two files, no sign-up, CC BY 4.0 — credit TheChurchesAtlas and use them anywhere (a link is welcome, followed or nofollow): worship_states.csv (one row per state: count, per 100,000 residents, share with a website, phone and hours) · worship_cities.csv (every city with three or more churches). Updated October 2026.

Density: churches per 100,000 residents

Population is the 2020 Census count. Density says more than a raw count: Mississippi has 337.5 per 100,000 — 5.6× the rate of Nevada.

StateChurchesPer 100kWith a websiteWith a phone
Alabama 14930297.2 44%82%
Alaska 934127.4 68%92%
Arizona 546776.4 65%91%
Arkansas 8633286.7 46%85%
California 2963875 61%90%
Colorado 481983.5 70%92%
Connecticut 329891.5 62%91%
Delaware 1366138.1 59%89%
Florida 25569118.7 56%91%
Georgia 21697202.6 50%86%
Hawaii 126586.9 69%89%
Idaho 1967107 75%91%
Illinois 14507113.2 62%92%
Indiana 10990162 61%91%
Iowa 4920154.2 69%93%
Kansas 4909167.1 64%93%
Kentucky 9874219.1 47%83%
Louisiana 9552205.1 48%89%
Maine 1654121.4 64%91%
Maryland 8561138.6 60%90%
Massachusetts 510872.7 64%90%
Michigan 12124120.3 66%94%
Minnesota 5999105.1 73%93%
Mississippi 9994337.5 40%82%
Missouri 10305167.4 58%90%
Montana 1516139.9 69%88%
Nebraska 2652135.2 65%92%
Nevada 188160.6 60%91%
New Hampshire 115183.5 72%90%
New Jersey 780384 61%92%
New Mexico 2293108.3 58%87%
New York 1610179.7 59%90%
North Carolina 24191231.7 52%89%
North Dakota 1083139 67%91%
Ohio 16713141.6 61%91%
Oklahoma 8124205.2 56%88%
Oregon 398294 72%93%
Pennsylvania 16193124.5 65%92%
Rhode Island 87579.8 59%88%
South Carolina 12709248.3 51%89%
South Dakota 1476166.4 69%91%
Tennessee 16255235.2 51%86%
Texas 39728136.3 55%89%
Utah 315096.3 79%91%
Vermont 688107 70%89%
Virginia 14533168.4 58%89%
Washington 658285.4 74%93%
Washington DC 875126.8 65%93%
West Virginia 4142230.9 46%80%
Wisconsin 6049102.6 71%93%
Wyoming 833144.4 73%94%

Cities with the most churches

CityStateChurches
Houston Texas4189
New York New York3786
Chicago Illinois3055
Los Angeles California2716
Philadelphia Pennsylvania1993
Dallas Texas1893
San Antonio Texas1787
Jacksonville Florida1671
Memphis Tennessee1647
Indianapolis Indiana1539
Detroit Michigan1536
Baltimore Maryland1362
Orlando Florida1282
Miami Florida1257
Fort Worth Texas1238
Charlotte North Carolina1212
Phoenix Arizona1168
Columbus Ohio1132
Atlanta Georgia1050
Tampa Florida1027
Nashville Tennessee1015
Louisville Kentucky999
Birmingham Alabama995
Oklahoma City Oklahoma994
Las Vegas Nevada980

How this is built

Locations come from Overture Maps (open data), filtered to churches in the US and cleaned: duplicates merged, dead entries dropped, phone numbers normalized. Websites, opening hours and amenities are checked against each business's own site. We keep monthly snapshots, so the counts above are a point in time, not a running total — ask if you need an earlier one.