Over 1,800 US parishes have closed since 1990
July 19, 2011
The number of Catholic parishes in the United States fell from 19,620 in 1990 to 17,784 in 2010--a drop of about 10%--according to a study conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
Over the same time span, the US Catholic population grew by nearly 50%, from 46 million to over 69 million.
The overall number of parishes in the US is now only slightly higher than the number in 1965 (17,637).
The average number of Sunday Masses at the typical US parish, according to the study, rose from 3.5 to 3.8 between 2000 and 2010, and average weekend Mass attendance rose from 966 to 1,110.
29% of parishes now have a regularly-scheduled Mass in a language other than English--up from 21% in 2000.
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