Some demographic data and websites

The following is brief summary of some demographic data I gathered for the Building Committee. These are all from primary sources.

What’s the future for Moscow? According to the draft comprehensive plan (8/17/07), Moscow is growing at about 1% a year, or very slowly. Growth will depend heavily on the University of Idaho’s enrollment and growth. (visionmoscow.org)

What’s going on with the Lutheran Church nationwide? Membership has declined by 1.62%. Church attendance averages 29.7%; attendance tends to fluctuate between 30 and 31%. (arda.org)

How does the Lutheran church stack up against other denominations in Latah County? 1 – Catholic; 2 – LDS; 3 – Nazarene; 4 – Lutheran (out of 46 total congregations & 19 denominations) (arda.org)

Demographics on Emmanuel Lutheran Church:
Baptized membership, 518 as of 2006, up from 512 in 2000.
Worship Attendance mirrors national trends at 30.9%, with a decline from 39.8% in 2000 (also mirrors national trends), Trinity Lutheran has a higher percentage at 44.1%. However, some of this may be reflected by how recently Trinity cleaned their rolls. Churches who have not cleaned rolls w/in past 5 years reflect a lower percentage of attendance than those who have. (elca.org)

Websites you may find of interest:

Congregational Annual Reports:
http://archive.elca.org/research/trendnet.html

Lutheran membership:
http://habitusnetwork.org/churches-news/lutheran-membership-down-1.6-percent-in-the-us-2.html

Moscow’s draft comprehensive plan:
http://www.visionmoscow.org/Documents/Chapter%201%20%208-17-07.pdf

Church demographic data in general:
http://www.thearda.com/