A national snapshot of America’s congregations

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The National Congregations Study surveys a representative sample of America’s churches, synagogues, mosques, and other local places of worship.

The NCS is based on in-depth interviews with congregational leaders in 1998, 2006-2007, 2012, and 2018-2019. It gathers information about worship, programs, staffing, community activities, demographics, and many other characteristics of American congregations.

Download the data

NCS cumulative data are available from the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA). The NCS cumulative data along with some restricted data also are available from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

NCS findings help us distinguish truth from myth about American congregations, and they help us assess the extent to which this or that feature of congregational life permeates the religious landscape.
— NCS Wave IV Report