How many people can typically fit inside a Catholic church?

[mmmcounts]

I’m looking at some data from a Gallup poll. It has to do with the number of physical church buildings for different kinds of religious bodies in America, and alongside that is the average number of adherents per church.
atheism.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=atheism&cdn=religion&tm=232&f=00&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html

It’s about 3/4 of the way down.

And here’s the reason I ask. These are the numbers.

Adherents per Church
499- Southern Baptist Convention

298- United Methodist Church

2,380- Catholic

128- Churches of Christ

310- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

194- Assemblies of God

479- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

385- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

161- Jehovah’s Witnesses

333- Episcopal Church

Does one of those stick out to you? I noticed one that did.

This makes me wonder something. Can this be accounted for if Catholic churches are, on average, at least 5 times larger than other churches and they have about 10 services a week?

Or could this be because most of the 66 million “Catholics” in the United States were baptized that way as babies, haven’t stepped into a Catholic church in decades, and are still counted Catholic just as much as anyone else?

I’m also kind of curious as to how these numbers play out in the rest of the world. Are there over 2,000 Catholic “memberships” per physical building all over the world? I would tend to think so, as this all goes back to how many people the Vatican “represents” and these people are counted under the same criteria pretty much everywhere. Any reason why I shouldn’t think that?

If the 1 billion Catholics on record all attended a Sunday morning service at the same time…well, first of all, how many would choose to go to a Catholic church? And second, would these 1 billion Catholics have…let’s do the math here, a billion divided by 2.3k…about 430,000 places of worship to go to worldwide? I haven’t been able to find the worldwide data on this, so that’s just an extrapolation of what’s seen in the American data. Is it significantly more or less than that, or about the same?

Actually, never mind. I found it. The total number of Catholic parishes and missions in the world is 408,637. That’s only a bit less than the American numbers indicate. Also, there’s a total of 1,482,909 personnel (this includes seminarians, sisters, brothers, priests, lay ministers, permanent deacons, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and a pope) who serve the 1 billion people that are Catholic to one extent or another.

If all those personnel were equally dispersed among all those parishes and missions, you’d have a little over 3.6 people at each of these places of worship. And along with those 3.6 personnel, you would have about 2,447 people showing up, though it does vary a bit by country- in Mexico or Spain, for example, I’m guessing it’d be quite a bit over 2,500. In the US, it’s more like 2,380.

At risk of stating the obvious, you don’t ever see this happen.

So anyway. How many people can typically fit inside a Catholic church? The “membership” numbers seem to be a little…out of touch. With reality, that is. In order to get a better grasp on reality, I’m looking for the typical number of people that can fit inside a Catholic church, which I will then multiply by 408,637. That would give us a still-rather-optimistic view of the worldwide Catholic population if every single Catholic parish and mission had a “sellout” on the same morning.

Just trying to get a feel for the state of Catholicism in the world today. Given this sort of data, I can’t be entirely satisfied with numbers that range from 990 million to 1.1 billion. If I went by those kinds of numbers, I’d be thinking there were 1 billion Sunni Muslims in the world, too.

 

[Randb]

I don’t know on a big scale as you are stating but here in a small southern town we have a small Church . One that holds maybe 150 to 175 people BUT we also have 4 Masses to hold em all! Now look at some of the protestant Churches that are BIG and have big fellowship halls some have schools attached & maybe have 10 or 20 cars out front .

 

[Byzantine_Wolf]

I read the title of this thread and thought it was a joke.

“How many Catholics does it take to screw in a light bulb?”

 

[AJTheMan]

I read the title of this thread and thought it was a joke.

“How many Catholics does it take to screw in a light bulb?”

I thought the exact same thing. I was about to post that this thread sounded like a “How many Catholics…” joke.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Most parishes I have been to the church can seat about 700-1000 people. Every parish I have been to has had 4 Masses for Sunday (one of those on Saturday after sundown).

 

[kimmielittle]

26,000 If you slice them thin and stack them to the ceilings

 

[Nine_Two]

One of those numbers stuck out to me because it was in a really big font.

 

[Prodigal_Son1]

I read the thread title and immediately thought, ‘All of them’.

 

[Ignatius]

I’m looking at some data from a Gallup poll. It has to do with the number of physical church buildings for different kinds of religious bodies in America, and alongside that is the average number of adherents per church.
And here’s the reason I ask. These are the numbers.

Adherents per Church
499- Southern Baptist Convention

298- United Methodist Church

2,380- Catholic

128- Churches of Christ

310- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

194- Assemblies of God

479- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

385- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

161- Jehovah’s Witnesses

333- Episcopal Church

Does one of those stick out to you? I noticed one that did.

There are about 1.2 Billion Catholics in the world. The Catholic Church is by far has the largest US population of any faith group.

Also, Don’t forget that Catholics don’t have just 1 service on Sundays. There may be 12 - 15 Masses per week in a Catholic Church, so the building doesn’t need to be all that big.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I think that our limit is about 800. The Vietnamese have been known to fit around 1200 in - that is when we got ticketed as a fire hazard. We have about 3500 families. We have three masses Saturday evening and eight on Sunday - It keeps three priests pretty busy.

I have heard that the churches are kept below 1000 capacity to avoid building regulations which require sprinklers etc for larger structures. [That is just hearsay. I wouldn’t bet much on its accuracy.]

 

[Pixie_Dust]

Parishes come in all sizes, so there’s no “typical” number of Catholics at any given parish. Some smaller parishes have to share a priest, too. He’ll celebrate Mass on Saturday at 5:30 at one parish, 7:00 at the other, and then Sunday morning at 8:30/10:30, or something like that. I’ve been to Mass in a convent chapel that would be crowded if 40 people were there; I’ve been to a Cathedral that easily seated hundreds, possibly 1000s. I didn’t take time to count noses, though.

Even among faithful Catholics, there will be people ill, caring for someone else who is ill, working, or traveling and thus unable to attend Mass at their usual parish. Sunday before last we had to set up chairs in the narthex (the back wall is all glass so people can still see what’s going on as well as hear) because the pews were full. Attendance fluctuates from one week to the next, from one liturgy celebration to the next. You just never know who’s going to show up!

One of the most wonderful things I’ve found about being Catholic is that if I’m unable, for whatever reason, to attend Mass at my parish, I can attend Mass anywhere else and pray the same prayers, and hear the same Scriptures, and celebrate the very same liturgy that my brothers and sisters at “home” are doing.

 

[Rolltide]

Catholic Churches do tend to be very large structures. My church in my hometown in Minnesota holds at least 2500. My church in Tuscaloosa, in the heart of the Deep South, recently expanded to hold over 1000. The two churches I attend when I visit my parents in Arizona hold around 2500 each. My aunt’s parish in the Chicago suburbs holds around 1500. Even my cousin’s parish in a small, remote South Dakota town holds 500-700.

I’d wager that the reason for this dates back to the beginnings of the church. Since the Catholic Church was the only denomination, why would you build several smaller churches in your town and split up resources? Most towns went for a large, grand church that could hold the entire city. It was actually a better investment in most cases. This concept goes all the way back to the enormous Hagia Sophia cathedral built by Justinian in Constantinople.

 

[chaunceygardner]

Well, if you count heads on Christmas or Easter or First Communion Sunday, you will get a totally different number than you would get on a summer Sunday, or at an 11:30 a.m. Mass on a Sunday when your team kicks off at Noon.

A Catholic church can hold from a few hundred to several thousand people. Whereas many Protestant churches have one Sunday service, or at most two, a Catholic parish may have 3, 4, or 5 from Saturday evening through Sunday evening. And the number of members per church is meaningless since only half or less will attend on a given weekend. (Not even considering the fairly high number of non-Catholics who attend Mass with friends and family). But that is about the same as mainstream Protestant churches.

Finally, the numbers often given for church membership are not based on what the churches themselves report, but are derived from surveys of church membership and attendance. From that we can come up with estimated numbers and percents.

So I think the current estimates of the number of Catholics in the world (or at least the number who have been baptized and consider themselves Catholic) is fairly accurate.

 

[mmmcounts]

26,000 If you slice them thin and stack them to the ceilings

Ohhhhh…Oh nooooo…You’re bad. You’re very, very bad. Color me shocked, followed by cautiously bemused. That’s funny, but I can never use it.

Do I want to, though? No, I can’t. That’s too bad.

 

[kimmielittle]

Ohhhhh…Oh nooooo…You’re bad. You’re very, very bad. Color me shocked, followed by cautiously bemused. That’s funny, but I can never use it.

Do I want to, though? No, I can’t. That’s too bad.

 

[BernadetteM]

Well, if you count heads on Christmas or Easter or First Communion Sunday, you will get a totally different number than you would get on a summer Sunday, or at an 11:30 a.m. Mass on a Sunday when your team kicks off at Noon.

A Catholic church can hold from a few hundred to several thousand people. Whereas many Protestant churches have one Sunday service, or at most two, a Catholic parish may have 3, 4, or 5 from Saturday evening through Sunday evening. And the number of members per church is meaningless since only half or less will attend on a given weekend. (Not even considering the fairly high number of non-Catholics who attend Mass with friends and family). But that is about the same as mainstream Protestant churches.

Finally, the numbers often given for church membership are not based on what the churches themselves report, but are derived from surveys of church membership and attendance. From that we can come up with estimated numbers and percents.

So I think the current estimates of the number of Catholics in the world (or at least the number who have been baptized and consider themselves Catholic) is fairly accurate.

We have a total of 6 Masses, one on Saturday. All the Masses are filled and many times people must stand up outside to hear Mass. They also have chairs for the extra members.

I would assume the parish counts the members by how many envelopes are sent out. If you have 900 envelope boxes then you must add the family which can bring the total of communicants to about 4000. Unless you count one family who has 15 children, some grown, some families have at least 8 children. It is really difficult to figure out exactly the number of people who belong to the parish with all the variables.

We also have probably around 75-100 persons going to confession just on Sunday, not counting Saturday or week days. I have never attended a Mass where the church was not full.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette

 

[mick321]

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered every day - all over the world - in churches large and small.

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in Vatican City has the largest largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people.

The chapel where I assist in the Classical Roman Liturgy in California has thirty pews, holding 240 people.

 

[chaunceygardner]

We have a total of 6 Masses, one on Saturday. All the Masses are filled and many times people must stand up outside to hear Mass. They also have chairs for the extra members.

I would assume the parish counts the members by how many envelopes are sent out. If you have 900 envelope boxes then you must add the family which can bring the total of communicants to about 4000. Unless you count one family who has 15 children, some grown, some families have at least 8 children. It is really difficult to figure out exactly the number of people who belong to the parish with all the variables.

We also have probably around 75-100 persons going to confession just on Sunday, not counting Saturday or week days. I have never attended a Mass where the church was not full.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette

Counting by registered parishioners does seem to be the usual way for a parish to number its members. You are correct in saying that number does not represent all the individual family members (making the total much higher) nor does it represent all those who come to church on a given Sunday (lower numbers). Which is why I referred to the surveys that show the numbers who say they are Catholic and the percent who come to Mass regularly.

Your situation appears to be unusual, at least from my experience. The ONLY times I have observed an SRO situation at a Catholic Church in the past 25 years was for Easter and Christmas; and then at only some of the Masses. And that comes from experiencing many different churches in various parts of the U.S. and beyond. I live in an area with a lot of Catholic Churches (although many have been merged), some as close as five blocks to another one! Is your situation due to fewer churches that are farther apart, or perhaps being in a growing area? Or are you amongst Catholics who take their faith more seriously than those in other places?

 

[BernadetteM]

Counting by registered parishioners does seem to be the usual way for a parish to number its members. You are correct in saying that number does not represent all the individual family members (making the total much higher) nor does it represent all those who come to church on a given Sunday (lower numbers). Which is why I referred to the surveys that show the numbers who say they are Catholic and the percent who come to Mass regularly.

Your situation appears to be unusual, at least from my experience. The ONLY times I have observed an SRO situation at a Catholic Church in the past 25 years was for Easter and Christmas; and then at only some of the Masses. And that comes from experiencing many different churches in various parts of the U.S. and beyond. I live in an area with a lot of Catholic Churches (although many have been merged), some as close as five blocks to another one! Is your situation due to fewer churches that are farther apart, or perhaps being in a growing area? Or are you amongst Catholics who take their faith more seriously than those in other places?

There are several parishes close to me and I find that some are larger, but still seem quite full.

As a protestant our church held around 150 and it was only full at Christmas and Easter. Other churches of the same faith usually had 100 to 400, but there were much fewer of these churches around.

My friend is a Lutheran and she is lucky to get 18 people at the one service they have. I am sure that other Lutheran churches have many more that attend.

I don’t think it has so much to do with someone being serious about their faith whether they attend every Sunday, as I know many protestants who are serious and devoted who go whenever they feel like it. I think that Catholics are more serious about going to Mass because the Eucharist is the most important element in ones’ spiritual life.

If your not Catholic do you attend Mass every Sunday and also your own denomination? Also if your not Catholic what is your fascination with how many Catholic attend church to the extent that you go to Mass on a regular basis?

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette

 

[Usbek_de_Perse]

I read the title of this thread and thought it was a joke.

“How many Catholics does it take to screw in a light bulb?”

How many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?
Change?

How many Zen masters does it take to change a light bulb?
Two. One to change it, and one not to change it.

How many Amish does it take to change a light bulb?
None. They bake pies.

How many Taoists does it take to change a light bulb?
You cannot change a light bulb. By nature, it will go out again.

How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?
Four. One to screw in the new bulb, and three to talk about how much they’ll miss the old one.

How many jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?
Don’t worry, I’ll just sit here in the dark.

How many dadaists does it take to change a light bulb?
Fish.

Two men considering a religious vocation were having a conversation. "What is similar about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders? " the one asked.

The second replied, “Well, they were both founded by Spaniards – St. Dominic for the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits. They were also both founded to combat heresy – the Dominicans to fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to fight the Protestants.”

“What is different about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?”

“Met any Albigensians lately?”