Episcopal Church Releases In-House Analysis of 2024 Statistics

Church fails forthcoming in revealing actual churchwide statistics 

Church shows loss of 47 congregations nationwide

TEC spent $2,545,648,636 leaving a deficit of $28,412,259

By Mary Ann Mueller 

VOL Special Correspondent 

www.virtueonline.org 

October 29, 2025 

The Episcopal Church is being cagey when it comes to the transparency of its 2024 statistics.

Last week at its fall Executive Council confab TEC released its summary of church stats entitled: The Episcopal Church by the Numbers: Analysis of the 2024 Parochial Report Data, prepared by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research (HIRR) for the “Executive Officer of the Episcopal Church” namely Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe. This is his first detailed report to the wider church. 

Under the new Presiding Bishop’s watch the number of Episcopal churches dropped from 6,754 to 6,707 a 7% loss of 47 worshipping congregations.

However, the slick 26-page document is not detailed enough to actually get a clear look into the spiritual life of the church. Even coupling it with the previous year's Analysis of the 2023 Parochial Report Data, doesn't give a complete picture. As a result, the Episcopal Church has only offered up a superficial glance into the sliding statistical numbers of the church.   

The 2024 Foreword explains: “This year's report represents a significant departure from the previous annual publications, because the content of the report form changed significantly for 2024,” it says. “The House of Deputies' Committee on the State of the Church, with the approval of Executive Council, significantly revised the questions included in the 2024 Parochial Report form to better capture the evolving needs and circumstances of Episcopal congregations. This means that certain data points collected in previous years may not be directly comparable to this year's findings.”

The Episcopal Church is trying to develop a yearly report to remain “relevant and responsive to the current landscape of congregational life,” and to provide “a comprehensive picture of The Episcopal Church.”

The Hartford Institute for Religious Research (HIRR), which put out the analytical report, is the religious research arm of the Hartford International University for Religion & Peace (HIUR&P). It is dedicated to developing a “better understanding of the life and dynamics of the lived reality of faith communities.”

The small 192-year-old institution, based in Hartford, Connecticut, has Congregational Church roots but now considers itself a non-denominational seminary partnering religion with the pursuit of peace. The university also focuses on the Study of Islam and the fostering of Christian-Muslim Relations. It also has an accredited Islamic chaplaincy program.

The Episcopal Church’s HIRR Analysis of the 2024 Parochial Report Data was penned by Charissa Mikoski, an assistant professor of research at Hartford International University for Religion & Peace (HIUR&P); and B. Clarvon Watts who is a postdoctoral research fellow and she also is a visiting faculty associate at the same university.

The HIRR branches out past the scope of the sacramental life to explore other aspects of congregational life and function.  

One of the other aspects of congregational life includes identifying the 45 separate languages that Episcopal services are conducted in with English-only services being held in 5,828 out of the 6,707 worldwide congregations. Another 243 congregations conduct bilingual worship services. Other TEC congregations conduct services in Spanish, which is the most common non-English language used in Episcopal worship, followed by French and Haitian Creole.

The Episcopal Church’s dioceses span the globe across 22 countries with services being conducted in such varied languages as Arabic, Dutch, Hindi, Swahili, Greek, Latin, Bengali, Hmong, German, Hawaiian, Ojibwe, Chinese, Marshallese and a host of other dialects and tongues. 

Somewhere along the line the 2025 Annual Table of Statistics should be released detailing complete parochial numbers across all dioceses and provinces. The detailed data which tracks the exact number of open churches, membership figures, active communicants, ASA, baptisms, confirmations, converts, weddings, and funerals, something the Episcopal Church called its vital statistics. Those statistical numbers show how many turn to the Episcopal Church in the living out of their faith walks during the touchstone points of their spiritual lives – getting married, baptizing the baby, presenting junior to the bishop for confirmation, and burying grandpa.

For many – other than celebrating the occasional spiritual encounters of their faith – merely show up usually on Christmas and Easter which briefly swells church attendance. Unfortunately, that quick twice-a-year dose of the religion is not transformative enough to encourage them to cross the church’s threshold more often to allow the Gospel message to bring them closer to Christ, develop a relationship with Him and allow Him to shape their lives 

The 2024 Analysis of the Parochial Report shows that 960,207 worshippers did indeed show up to welcome the Baby Jesus on Christmas with nearly 10,000 fewer coming back (950,275) to celebrate the Resurrection of the Crucified Christ on Easter.

Churchwide there were 523,133 celebrations of the Service of Holy Communion with an in-person ASA of 413,034 and another 121,545 tuning in online.

The Episcopal Church is now tracking both in-person attendance and online participation, a result of the impact of the digital age. 

Last year (2024) the Daily Office was read in the church 258,004 times. Another 183,156 worshippers participated in person at a midweek or some other week day service. 

The spiritual health of the church is not reflected in the number of languages which are being used in worship nor the statistical figures but in the participation of the spiritual touchstones. 

Those spiritual touchstones – baptisms, confirmations, receptions and funerals all showed a drop from 2023. Only the number of marriages went up.

Baptisms fell from 20,247 to 19,624 a -3.1% loss meaning 623 fewer children and adults did not experience Episcopal baptismal waters being poured over their heads. 

Confirmations dropped by 2,253 or -15.2% in 2024. Dropping from 14,853 in 2023 to 12,600. 

Converts coming into the Episcopal Church fell by -28.1%. In 2023 a total of 7,567 non-Episcopalians were received in the Episcopal Church, yet in 2024 only 5,441 non-Episcopal Christians made the spiritual leap to TEC, resulting in a loss of 2,125 souls not seeking to join the Anglican Communion through the Episcopal Church. 

In 2024 the Episcopal Church also saw 713 fewer people turning to the Episcopal Church for their burial rites. The number of burials fell from 24,878 in 2023 to 24,165, a -2.1% drop in funerals. 

Only Episcopal weddings showed a +1.3% increase with 4,951 couples heading to an Episcopal altar to pronounce their vows in 2024 with an uptick of 65 weddings from the 4,886 figures in 2023.

The figures also show that there are 9,717 clergy (bishops, priests and deacons) in the Episcopal Church with another 27,360 lay men and women laboring behind the scenes to keep the wheels greased and grinding.

Of the 6,707 congregations in 2024 only 1,803 enjoy the ministry of deacons. 

Not counting Sunday schools, the report delineates that there are 765 preschool and/or nursery schools programs operating across the church. Another 170 churches run K-8 elementary or grade schools and 9-12 high schools are a part of 62 Episcopal congregational educational outreach. However, neither Episcopal related colleges nor seminaries were counted.

The size of the Episcopal Church’s carbon footprint seems to be important. 

The question: “How is your parish reducing your carbon footprint,” is answered in four ways – (1) energy efficiency; (2) recycling and waste reduction; (3) water conservation; and (4) paper reduction & digital communication.

Very few congregations are doubling down in their carbon footprint. A total of 1,858 churches is concerned about energy efficiency; another 1,227 parishes are working on recycling; keeping an eye on the water meter interests 438 churches; and a mere 374 congregations report an effort to reduce paper use.

One congregation – St. Peters in Chicago – reports it's working hard to reduce its carbon footprint.

“Within the last five years, our parish family significantly remodeled our church as a part of the remodeling, our parish installed a new, efficient HVAC system. The system is controlled by programmable thermostats that can be controlled through a wireless connection. This ensures that we are only heating or cooling our building when we are using it, “the Chicago church reports. “Our parish used individual cups to distribute wine during communion. A parishioner found small paper cups suitable for communion. This parishioner takes the cups and combustion after the service.”

Province IV, consisting of 20 dioceses in nine Southern states running from the American Southeast along the southern Atlantic and western Gulf Coast, is numerically the healthiest. 

The province boasts 1,240 congregations with an in-person ASA of 105,033. There are 1,910 clergy serving the province with a lay support staff of 6,041. The total income is reported to be $673,283,605.

The numerically smallest, yet far flung Episcopal province, is Province IX which spreads across South America, Central America and the Caribbean. However, it does not include the foreign Episcopal churches in Europe, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Virgin Islands. 

Province IX sustains 256 congregations with an in-person ASA of 7,759 served by 210 clergy supported by a lay staff of 483. The foreign province’s income is $28,948,185.

Financially the Episcopal Church spent more than it brought in during 2024. The Church took in a total of $2,517,236,387 of which $1,449,045,120 came through the Plate and Pledge offerings.

However, the church spent $2,545,648,636 leaving a $28,412,259 red ink deficit.

“For the first time total expenses are greater than the total income,” the report states.

The HIRR analysis also reveals other interesting nuggets such as the median age of Episcopalians is 60-years-old. So, the Episcopal Church is rapidly graying even with the Episcopal Church being spread across the globe 95 percent of those professing to be Episcopalians are White Caucasians.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.

For more analysis click here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/episcopal-church-releases-preliminary-2024-parochial-report-data-the-results-are-not-pretty/