Membership in the Christian Science Church has been steadily declining for 45 years. The first table lists the total number of practitioners and teachers in each state, which has declined an average of about 5% per year. The second table lists the number of churches, which has declined about 2% per year. Through 2005, these figures were obtained by manually counting the number of listings in the Christian Science Journal. The 2009, 2013, and 2016 numbers were extracted from the listings in the church’s online directory. Practitioners listed in more than one state were tabulated only in the state used as their primary address. The 2016 online directory also listed 432 “nurses” in the United States.

Christian Science contends that illness is an illusion caused by faulty beliefs and that prayer heals by replacing bad thoughts with good ones. Christian Science practitioners work by trying to argue the sick thoughts out of the patient’s mind. Consultations can take place in person, by telephone, or even by mail. Individuals may also be able to attain correct beliefs by themselves through prayer or concentration. There is no scientific evidence that Christian Science methods influence the course of any disease. The steady membership decline is not surprising because the church’s doctrines have little appeal to modern youth.

Practitioners and Teachers

Date 1/71 1/76 1/79 2/91 2/96 9/05 2/16 U.S. Total 4,965 4,302 3,878 2,237 1,802 1161 942 Alabama 19 12 12 8 3 6 4 Alaska 2 5 5 5 3 3 4 Arizona 57 66 67 29 44 32 22 Arkansas 20 27 26 12 6 6 2 California 1,246 1,087 986 571 435 259 180 Colorado 84 70 68 42 43 32 35 Connecticut 61 62 54 35 26 17 13 Delaware 6 8 7 5 3 1 4 Florida 376 336 311 210 182 90 65 Georgia 51 40 34 26 23 16 16 Hawaii 8 13 16 6 6 6 6 Idaho 11 14 12 8 11 6 8 Illinois 314 241 204 106 77 46 33 Indiana 77 67 55 30 18 9 9 Iowa 32 29 26 14 7 5 2 Kansas 45 41 38 16 11 10 6 Kentucky 24 19 19 8 6 6 2 Louisiana 31 28 22 12 8 7 5 Maine 28 25 25 12 5 16 20 Maryland 49 44 44 36 25 16 23 Massachusetts 295 272 247 152 124 101 97 Michigan 187 164 124 72 51 35 32 Minnesota 47 43 4w1 22 13 8 11 Mississippi 6 6 8 3 2 1 2 Missouri 134 107 99 58 45 36 37 Montana 14 13 12 9 7 7 9 Nebraska 28 19 15 3 4 2 1 Nevada 13 14 13 6 6 5 7 New Hampshire 56 21 18 7 10 10 8 New Jersey 110 88 69 34 27 21 11 New Mexico 21 16 17 17 12 11 11 New York 333 261 224 96 75 35 34 North Carolina 35 41 34 38 34 16 6 North Dakota 4 6 4 2 0 0 0 Ohio 194 168 147 80 61 34 19 Oklahoma 67 61 52 22 14 10 2 Oregon 112 105 90 51 49 32 28 Pennsylvania 133 107 96 29 25 14 11 Rhode Island 12 8 9 5 5 2 4 South Carolina 13 12 17 16 12 8 7 South Dakota 6 7 4 1 2 1 0 Tennessee 33 25 19 13 10 11 10 Texas 237 214 201 107 99 60 43 Utah 12 10 7 5 3 4 3 Vermont 8 8 8 4 4 1 4 Virginia 42 46 47 46 43 30 23 Washington 137 118 116 79 65 44 41 West Virginia 9 6 7 7 4 3 1 Wisconsin 75 65 64 34 30 22 15 Wyoming 6 6 6 4 4 3 0 District of Columbia 44 31 34 24 10 5 6

Churches