How big is a small church? Canadian numbers

Is your church big or small?

For Canadian churches, here’s one way to measure - by the total receipts issued in a year.

If your church issued more than $80,000 in receipts, it’s big.

If your church issued less than $80,000 in receipts, it’s small.

Don’t panic if you don’t know the receipted income for your church, here’s how to look that up.

I spent two days last week with church researchers. That’s how I know that $80,000 is the median receipted income for Canadian churches in 2021. (Actually $79,678 to be precise but $80,000 is easier to work with.) Thanks to Scott Mealey from the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research for the source research. Let’s unpack this.

What is receipted income?

Receipted income means income for which the church issued a receipt. If the church received rental income, investment income etc. that’s not receipted income. Gifts from other charities don’t count; so, gifts made through CanadaHelps and donor advised funds are not receipted income either.

What’s median?

Median means midpoint. If you divide the data into two equal halves, $80,000 is right in the middle. Median is different than average. The average receipted income is considerably higher, because the megachurches at the top of the range increase the average. Median is more useful here. Think of median as ‘typical’.

Why 2021?

2021 and 2019 data were quite consistent - the median receipted income for churches was $79,678 and $80,000 respectively. Because the T3010 data is publicly available, you can look up your church for those years and compare receipted income to the median. And you can also see the trends since then. Has your church’s receipted income increased since 2021?

Response

I was struck by the $80,000 figure. (Clearly, as I’m writing a blog post about one number!) Numbers never tell the whole story, but neither should we ignore them. If your local church belongs to a larger body - like a diocese, synod, regional church etc. - how many churches are small and how many are big? What are the trends?

I’m grateful for people paying attention to the numbers. I remind myself often that hope and optimism are not the same things. I remain hopeful and can also see big changes coming. If you have more numbers, please do share!