A statistical atlas · 2000—2024 · 481 churches

Five hundred miles of border,
five hundred miles of coast.

The Rio Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, formed in 2015 from the merger of the Southwest Texas and Rio Grande conferences. This atlas follows every congregation through a quarter-century of its own statistical record — where the conference has grown, where it has thinned, and what tends to come before each.

203

Active churches

126

Disaffiliated

152

Closed since 2000

Active & at-risk

elevated or high

A quarter-century

The conference, by the numbers, 2000–2024.

Professing membership has fallen roughly 51% from its peak. Figures before 2015 sum the two predecessor conferences.

Professing members

-50%

Average worship attendance

-71%

Total funds paid

-1%

What precedes growth

Engagement, not size, foretells the next three years.

Correlation between a church's per-member activity in one year and its membership change three years later, across every congregation and year on record.

Worship attendance per member

n = 8,154

+0.24

Professions of faith per member

n = 8,154

+0.15

Formation participation per member

n = 4,363

+0.10

Baptisms per member

n = 6,758

+0.07