Irish Church Statistics

ironclaw

Hi All,

I'm currently looking for statistics regarding the number of churches and their relative attendance for the island of Ireland. Are there any recent figures available?

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but I was hoping someone who browses the forum may know of their existence.

Thank you!

looksee

If you google 'Church attendance statistics Ireland' you will get a good deal of information, and following a few links will get you even more.

ironclaw

looksee wrote: »

If you google 'Church attendance statistics Ireland' you will get a good deal of information, and following a few links will get you even more.

With respect, I'm aware of Google, but thank you.

I was hoping that someone perhaps had conducted a survey or study of their own, and would be interested in discussing the figures for comparison with my own research. One for example I cannot find is the number of actively attended churches in the country, or a trend in church closures (If any)

Jellybaby1

Are you researching all Christian denominations? I know the Church of Ireland recently held a census before Christmas so if that was of any help to you you could try contacting the CoI (don't know who you'd contact though). I don't know if these figures would be public or not.

Mrs OBumble

AFAIK, there is one church in Ireland which has about 80% of all people who they are a member of any church.

Or do you mean church-buildings, rather than churches?

Attendance would be harder to get, because it fluctuates widely depending on the season.

ironclaw

Thanks all. As regard attendance, I have some good stats on that from the links that looksee' search gave.

However I can't pin down how many churches open their doors each week for a sermon, service etc. And no, I'm not discriminating in terms of denomination, all welcome.

Nick Park

ironclaw wrote: »

Thanks all. As regard attendance, I have some good stats on that from the links that looksee' search gave.

However I can't pin down how many churches open their doors each week for a sermon, service etc. And no, I'm not discriminating in terms of denomination, all welcome.

Evangelical Alliance Ireland are currently conducting a national survey of the 'born again' or evangelical churches in the Republic. Full results will not be in until later in the year, but their initial research reveals between 700 and 800 such churches. One Nigerian denomination, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has 140 churches in the Republic.

homer911

Nick Park wrote: »

Evangelical Alliance Ireland are currently conducting a national survey of the 'born again' or evangelical churches in the Republic. Full results will not be in until later in the year, but their initial research reveals between 700 and 800 such churches. One Nigerian denomination, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has 140 churches in the Republic.

So many churches, so many associations. I take it that https://www.evangelical.ie/ is not the same as http://www.aontas.ie/ Was there a split?

Edit, this seems to clarify: http://www.gladysganiel.com/ecumenism/evangelicalism-in-ireland-slow-motion-revival-or-faction-fighting/

Jellybaby1

Also, not to be confused with http://www.aontas.com/

neemish

The Catholic Dublin Diocese does a "census" every October, but I'm not sure if these figures are made public

recedite

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Are you researching all Christian denominations? I know the Church of Ireland recently held a census before Christmas so if that was of any help to you you could try contacting the CoI (don't know who you'd contact though). I don't know if these figures would be public or not.

As an added complication, there are separate evangelical congregations attending some of these churches at different times to the "standard" church service. I wonder would the COI count their numbers separately? Probably not.

Mrs OBumble

recedite wrote: »

As an added complication, there are separate evangelical congregations attending some of these churches at different times to the "standard" church service. I wonder would the COI count their numbers separately? Probably not.

Not only evangelicals either: there's a trend to this in the eastern Orthodox congregations too.

Also, there pentocostal congregations which hold their services on hotels or rented rooms in business parks that don't look anything like church-buildings.

And regular Catholic services in nursing homes and the like - sometimes with a chapel, sometimes not.

It really all depends on what the OP is trying to count. But is very difficult whichever way they go.

Jellybaby1

recedite wrote: »

As an added complication, there are separate evangelical congregations attending some of these churches at different times to the "standard" church service. I wonder would the COI count their numbers separately? Probably not.

I wouldn't say the CoI parishes would be involved in obtaining attendance information on any other congregations using their churches. Whatever the OP intends to do, if he/she is researching all Christian denominations.....it will be a mammoth job!

Nick Park

recedite wrote: »

As an added complication, there are separate evangelical congregations attending some of these churches at different times to the "standard" church service. I wonder would the COI count their numbers separately? Probably not.

If they are separate congregations, then almost certainly not.

There are several scenarios in Ireland where multiple church services are held in one building.

1. An increasing number of churches have grown to a place where their buildings are too small to accommodate all their congregation at one time. For example, a Pentecostal church in County Kildare may attract over 1000 worshippers on a Sunday, but their building is only large enough to seat 400. Therefore they run multiple services, one after another. In this case they would be counted as one church since they all come under one local leadership.

2. Other churches run additional services for different language group. For example, a Baptist church in Dublin runs an English language service on Sunday mornings and then a Romanian language service on Sunday afternoon. Again, since they come under the one leadership and have a common statement of faith, these would be counted as one church.

3. Then you get congregations who rent or borrow another congregation's building. There are more church congregations in Ireland than there are church buildings. So, for example, a Presbyterian Church in County Kildare meets on Sunday mornings, but rents their building to a Brazilian Pentecostal congregation on Saturday evenings. In this case they would be counted as two separate churches who happen to worship at the same location.

Peregrinus

The more protestant Christian traditions don't lay great stock on organisational/institutional unity, and the result is a great proliferation of organisationally separate churches/congregations/denominations. They don't see this a problem and, from a spiritual point of view, it probably isn't. But for the pragmatic purposes of the OP it's definitely a problem; getting consistent, comparable information from all these groups on how many churches/worship centres they operate and how many people rock up to each every Sunday will be next to impossible.

The more catholic traditions tend to have fewer, larger organisational structures and getting statistical information on them is probably going to be easier, but it does depend on what information they choose to collect and publish. In particular, so far as I know attendance figures are not routinely collected by either the Catholic or Anglican churches. Most information we have about church attendance in Ireland is from population surveys, where a sample of people are asked about (among other things) their church attendance habits, and then the results are extrapolated to the population at large. But this doesn't tell you anything about attendance rates at particular venues.

brian_t

Peregrinus wrote: »

In particular, so far as I know attendance figures are not routinely collected by either the Catholic or Anglican churches.

Actually the congregation is counted at a lot of CoI services (if not all) and the attendance figures noted in a book in the vestry but these figures wouldn't be passed onto any highter authority.

Mancomb Seepgood

At Quaker meetings a headcount (adults and children recorded separately) is taken each Sunday and usually recorded on a sheet on the noticeboard. An average figure is recorded in the statistics for the yearly meeting (national gathering) which usually takes place in March/April. While these figures are very accurate, it helps that Quaker meetings tend to be quite small.

lottpaul

Peregrinus wrote: »

In particular, so far as I know attendance figures are not routinely collected by either the Catholic or Anglican churches.

In our church (C of I) we have a "Preachers Book" and in it is entered details of every service, including weddings and funerals, stating the time and type of service, the numbers attending, the number of communicants, the celebrant, the preacher, the amount of money taken in collections etc. As far as I know though this isn't passed on regularly to any diocesan or central church body and gathering it all from every church would be a huge task - even assuming it would be made available to individuals or corporate bodies.

recedite

Nick Park wrote: »

If they are separate congregations, then almost certainly not.

There are several scenarios in Ireland where multiple church services are held in one building.

This is different though, in that both congregations would be considered part of the "diversity" within the CoI. Just as some parishes would be considered more "high church" than others, it is also possible to have different congregations in the same parish.

I know somebody attending the evangelical services in Rathmines CoI and apparently their numbers now exceed the numbers attending the "standard" service, as well as being a much younger demographic.
So obviously that would have important implications for the future of that particular parish. I presume this is the kind of thing the OP is trying to research.
There is also the possibility that they will switch over to the standard service as they get older. Its a bit of an "unknown".

Jellybaby1

The OP hasn't explained why they doing this research. It would be interesting to know, but I'm just nosey like that.

ironclaw

Thank you for the responses and directions folks.

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

The OP hasn't explained why they doing this research. It would be interesting to know, but I'm just nosey like that.

Its a data mining / traffic flow project in my spare time. I'm just using churches as a training data set given they have a relatively predictable flow of traffic and are an epic-center at mass times.

Jellybaby1

ironclaw wrote: »

Thank you for the responses and directions folks.

Its a data mining / traffic flow project in my spare time. I'm just using churches as a training data set given they have a relatively predictable flow of traffic and are an epic-center at mass times.

Thanks for explaining. Perhaps you could start with one religion and if you get what you are looking for then try the next. There are so many religions in the country now, I don't envy you this research if its in your spare time. I think it would be a full time job on its own. Still, I would be most interested in any results you get, as I think others here might also be.