United Methodist Church's US membership falls by 174,000 in 2025: report
The United Methodist Church’s reported U.S. membership fell by more than 170,000 in 2025, according to a new report from its General Council on Finance and Administration.
The UMC General Council on Finance and Administration announced last week that it had released a statistical insights report on its member congregations in the United States.
The report drew from data based on 20,158 U.S.-based congregations that filed a report for 2025 and 21,176 U.S.-based congregations that filed a report for 2024. Of those numbers, 20,089 churches filed a report in both years, while 1,087 filed in 2024 but not 2025, and 69 filed for the first time last year.
According to the numbers, while the UMC had around 3.988 million members in the U.S. in 2024, that total dropped to around 3.814 million members last year, or a decline of 4.36%.
In-person worship attendance for U.S.-based churches declined from approximately 1.074 million in 2024 to approximately 1.041 million in 2025, while online worship attendance declined from approximately 1.037 million to about 986,000.
A spokesperson for the GCFA explained to The Christian Post that the decline in membership and worship attendance were due to multiple factors, including removal or correction through charge conference action, being withdrawn from profession membership, removal by transfer to other UMC congregations, removal by transfer to other denominations, removal due to death, or correction of previous reporting errors.
“There is no one single reason for the decline,” explained the GCFA spokesperson. “People also profess their faith and come into the denomination for various reasons, so the membership number is a blend of those that departed and new members.”
“GCFA’s role is to gather and report the statistics that annual conferences submit, so we’re not able to say how much any particular factor contributed to the change.”
The report does not focus on the UMC congregations based abroad, especially Africa, where the mainline Protestant denomination has experienced considerable growth in recent years.
While membership and attendance dropped, the report also found that UMC congregations in the U.S. saw increases in the number of small groups (62,531 in 2024 versus 63,589 in 2025) and professions of faith apart from confirmation (24,081 in 2024 versus 25,444 in 2025), an increase of 5.66%. Baptisms fell 3.76%, and congregation closures fell from 960 the year before to 540, while 214 active congregations began as new church starts, according to the report.
GCFA General Secretary Caitlin Congdon said in the announcement that she hopes “this analysis will encourage congregations and conferences as they look at what God is doing through their ministries.”
“Every number in this report represents United Methodists worshiping, serving, and giving faithfully in their communities,” said Congdon. “UMC Statistical Insights lifts up those bright spots so the whole connection can celebrate them and learn from one another.”
For decades, the UMC experienced considerable internal debate over whether to amend their Book of Discipline to allow for the blessing of same-sex unions, the ordination of noncelibate homosexual clergy and the funding of LGBT advocacy groups.
Although efforts to change the rules at General Conference every four years failed, theological progressives within the UMC often refused to follow or enforce the Book of Discipline.
At a 2019 special session of General Conference, delegates passed a temporary measure allowing for churches to disaffiliate from the UMC due to the ongoing debate on LGBT issues.
From 2019 to 2023, more than 7,600 mostly theologically conservative churches successfully disaffiliated from the UMC through the process, according to numbers compiled by UM News.
Many other congregations are continuing to attempt to leave the denomination since then, with ongoing legal battles taking place in South Carolina and Maryland, among other areas.
