Megachurch USA: Our first look into the HIRR megachurch dataset
2nd Congregational Church, New London, Ct. Franklin P. Kenyon (American, active New London, Connecticut 1855 - 1913). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. URL.
The Hartford Institute for Religion Research (HIRR) maintains the most comprehensive public database of megachurches in the United States. While the term is often used loosely, a megachurch is technically defined as a church with a protestant congregation and an average weekly attendance exceeding 2,000 people. The HIRR megachurch dataset is compiled through national surveys, media tracking, and denominational reports, and provides details on each church’s name, location, denomination, and attendance size.
Here, we take a first look at how megachurch congregation numbers vary across the United States and specific churches. In future reports, we will explore how congregation sizes vary across religious denominations as well. We also are working to expand the dataset to include story content mined from church websites and social media posts to better understand how the churches communicate religious lessons and facilitate group meetings.
Congregations in Sunbelt top list
Visualizing the average number of weekly congregates across the United States reveals that Sunbelt states are hot beds of megachurch life. Stretching from Florida to California, the Sunbelt is a region of the southern and southwestern United States known for its warm climate, suburban homes, golf courses, and, you guessed it, megachurches.
As shown in Fig A above, among all states in the union, California (913k), Texas (877k), and Florida (473k) top the list with the most weekly congregants. However, once accounting for state population size, California drops to the number 8 spot. In Fig B, we see states with the highest density of megachurch goers are Oklahoma (45 weekly congregates out of 1000 residents), Tennessee (33/1000), Georgia (32/1000), Alabama (30/1000), and Texas (28/1000). New Mexico (24/1000) and Arizona (23/1000) also place above California (23/100). Strikingly, the least active megachurch state out West is Utah, with 1.7 weekly congregates pre 1000 residents. It appears the Mormon strong-hold on Utah is not relenting any time soon, even as megachurch congregations balloon across neighboring suburban frontiers.
| State | Total Congregants | Congregants per 1000 |
|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | 184,015 | 45.7 |
| Tennessee | 236,211 | 33.1 |
| Georgia | 353,625 | 32.4 |
| Alabama | 155,091 | 30.6 |
| Texas | 877,471 | 28.4 |
| New Mexico | 50,430 | 23.8 |
| Arizona | 173,881 | 23.6 |
| California | 913,648 | 23.4 |
Top Megachurches Drive Growth
Now we will rank the churches based on their weekly attendance numbers. By identifying the nation’s largest megachurches, we can hone our focus on how they share scripture and drive group meetups and networks among congregants.
In the figure below, we plot the churches with the top 25 largest weekly attendances. All of the top 25 megachurches have attendances exceeding 15k, with the top four churches exceeding 30k. This ranking aligns with the nondenominational publication Outreach 100, who provides a ranking of the 100 largest megachurches in America each year. In the figure, we also identified three churches: Life.Church in Oklahoma, Saddleback Church in California, and Christ’s Church of the Valley in Arizona. Below we provide a brief profile of Life.Church, and highlight how they are innovating scripture to scale His Word. In future reports, we will study the other two.
The top 25 largest megachurches in the United States. We examine Life.Church, Saddleback Church, and Christ’s Church of the Valley in more detail in this report and future ones.
Life.Church
Life.Church is the largest megachurch is the USA with nearly 85k weekly attendees. It is a multi-site church based in Edmond, Oklahoma and is affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Life.Church has a massive online presence, largely built around the sermons of their senior Pastor Craig Groeschel and his 1.2 million Instagram followers. Life.Church produces high-quality video content across social media, and live streams sermons from a custom-built digital church experience hosted on their website: with an on-screen prayer request portal, notes app, and donation links.
Life.Church is a leader in the app economy as well. They own the domain bible.com, and developed the YouVersion Bible app, the world’s most popular digital bible. The YouVersion Bible app has translations spanning multiple languages, and is beloved by millions of people spanning the globe. It is one of the most downloaded iPhone apps ever with a 4.9 star rating from an unprecedented 12 million reviews.
Key Social Media Metrics
Facebook: Life.Church 740K followers • 59 following
Instagram: @life.church: 10,758 posts, 573K followers, 144 following
YouTube: @life.church: 1.04M subscribers, 1.6K videos
Craig Groeschel Instagram: 1.2 m followers, 6.3k posts
Next steps and links to more
This was our first look into megachurch life in the United States. We see that megachurches are actively growing in the Sunbelt, and identified the nation’s 25 largest megachurches.
In the next report, we will explore how congregation numbers vary by denomination and look closer at our three identified megachurches. Specifically Saddleback Church (California) and Christ’s Church of the Valley (Arizona).
In the meantime, please comment any questions you would like us to answer from the HIRR dataset, or any ways we can improve this report or future ones. If you are curious to learn more, below are links to related media and publications.
Survey of 24k church goers on church life 5 years after Covid-19. Read here.
LIfe.Church senior pastor’s sermon on “Guarding your family from digital danger”. Watch here.
Outreach 100’s Fastest Growing Churches in the United States. Read here.
