Anyone want to talk about Unitarian Universalist congregational data?

We’re in the season (until the end of January) when Unitarian Universalist Association-member congregations certify their statistics (like membership) to have a vote at the next General Assembly. It’s the great statistical roundup, and I’ve seen it as part of the holiday season! Numbers!

Three things to start:

  1. One can download CSVs of UUA certification numbers from 2013 back to 2004. Don’t know how long the CVS facility has been in place, but it made it easy (only a few hours) to normalize the 10 years of data, so I can see reported changes. I blame my Sunlight Foundation colleagues for making data normalization and analysis a recreational activity.
  2. One can see which congregations have risen and shut down. No easy way to identify mergers, and my memory doesn’t always work. Queens, N.Y. and Marietta, Ga. to be sure. Because of the moratorium on admitting new non-U.S. congregations and the 2002 independence of Canadian Unitarian Council, I’ll be focusing on U.S. congregations.
  3. Are you interested in this activity? Say yes in the comments.

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

3 comments

  1. Yes. I really geek out with the data site and check out how other congregations are doing and compare with others. I was just doing some research two days ago with it, matter of fact.

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