Membership for the PC(USA) and its predecessor denominations (the UPCUSA and the PCUS) peaked in the early 1960s, then began a long, slow decline (shown here for the last 10 years). In recent years, the rate of decline has decreased. Between 1967 and 1997 membership declines had averaged more than 30,000 annually (slightly more than 1% per year). The membership loss in 1997 was just over 22,000, and in 1998 it was 21,517, a loss of 0.85% and 0.83%, respectively (see Table 1).
With 2,587,674 members in 11,260 congregations, the average (median) size of a PC(USA) congregation is 123 members. On average, congregations in the Synod of Living Waters are the smallest--median membership size is 74. Those in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii are the largest--median membership size is 167 (see Table 4).
In contrast to the decline in membership, worship attendance and church school enrollment have remained relatively stable over the last 10 years.
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