EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis).  Many thanks to Alexei Kindrach of Orthodoxreality.org for putting together this wonderful information about the geographic distribution of Orthodox parishes and members… May the day come when all these churches will unite in one!..
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source – orthodoxreality.org

Maps of US Orthodox Churches: geographic distribution of parishes and members

1. State-level maps of individual Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches

Thanks to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), HERE you can easily create by yourself state-level maps of U.S. various Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christian Churches.  Watch a short video HERE on how to create these maps. For each Orthodox Church, these maps show:

  • A short article describing this Church (history, interesting facts, etc.)
  • Number of parishes in each state
  • Number of adherents (most inclusive category of church membership) in each state
  • Number of adherents per 1,000 population in each state

In order to create a map, please follow instructions below or watch HERE a short video-guide:

  • Go to the STATE MAPS PAGE on the website of the Association of Religion Data Archive
  • Under “Religion Maps (1980-2020),” click on “Major Religious Groups” and then – from the drop-down menu – click on “Individual Denominations”
  • On the next line, under “Individual Denomination,” click on the drop-down menu and select: a) particular Orthodox Church (e.g., Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Orthodox Church in America) and b) the type of map (see above) and the year for map data (most recent data are from 2020).
  • Click on “Change Map 1” and your map will emerge

2. County-level maps of U.S. various Orthodox Christian Churches (you need a tablet or PC/Laptop to properly view the maps)

Thanks to U.S. Religion Census, HERE, you can easily create by yourself county-level maps of U.S. various Orthodox Christian Churches. Watch a short video HERE on how to create these maps. For each Orthodox Church, these maps show:

  • Number of parishes in each U.S. county
  • Number of adherents (most inclusive category of church membership) in each U.S. county
  • Percentage of each Orthodox Church’s adherents in county’s total population

In order to create a map, please follow below instructions or WATCH HERE a short video-guide:

  • Go to U.S. Religion Census Interactive Maps
  • Under “Specific Religious Groups,” select and click on the type of a map (see above) that you want to create
  • On the next page, in the upper left corner, from the drop-down menu, select a particular Orthodox Church (e.g., Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Orthodox Church in America) and the year for map data (most recent data are from 2020). Wait a few seconds and the map will emerge.

3a. The map “Adherents of Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches in the USA.”

For all Oriental Orthodox Churches combined (e.g., Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Antiochian Archdiocese, Orthodox Church in America, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, etc.), this map shows the percentage of their adherents in the total population of each U.S. county. The map in PDF format can be downloaded HERE

3b. The map “Adherents of Oriental Orthodox Christian Churches in the USA.”

For all Oriental Orthodox Churches combined (e.g., Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, Ethiopian, etc.), this map shows the percentage of their adherents in the total population of each U.S. county. The map in PDF format can be downloaded HERE

4. Something Fun for You: Orthodox Church Maps Game

Here you can check your knowledge of the geographic distribution of the various Orthodox Christian Churches of the USA.

The game can be downloaded HERE

5. Maps of members’ concentration of US Orthodox Christian Churches

These maps show the counties with the greatest number of adherents for ten largest U.S. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches: American Carpatho-Russian Diocese, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, Armenian Apostolic Church, Coptic Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Orthodox Church in America, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Serbian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The maps with explanatory note can be downloaded HERE.

6. The map “Orthodox Bishops and Parishes in the USA.” (2018)

This map was created in my capacity of the Research Coordinator for the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA. It is available for free download on  the Assembly’s website. The map shows:

a) locations, names and jurisdictions of all active Orthodox bishops in the United States and

b) the total number of Orthodox parishes in each county.

The map can be downloaded from the website of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA HERE.

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. Alaska has a very interesting map.
    The map of bishops is inaccurate from what I can tell…there are a couple ROCOR metropolitans missing from the count, for sure, as well as some “auxilliary bishops”…could be others, too

  2. If I remember correctly this study was done 4 years ago, prior to, or right during Covid. Even then it showed a massive decline in attendance among GOARCH.

    It would be very interesting to see what those numbers look like now since that painted a very bleak picture.

    As an anecdotal note, I know of Antiochian/ROCOR/OCA parishes that have had 30-90 catechumens per year for the past couple of years. I have heard no such thing about the GOA, which leads me to believe the vast majority of converts are going to other jurisdictions. The only GOA parish I’ve seen with any number of converts has been St. Nektarios in Charlotte.

    • Anecdotally, from a city of only 2.5mil, we had several hundred in our GOARCH mission. Me and quite a few were baptized after COVID.

      Then, moving across the country to a town of ~90k, the only parish within an hour is GOARCH, and we’ve had a handful of converts just since I’ve been here (1.75 years)

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