This data is a bit dated. But here is a very nice web site with denominational data. Association of Religion Data Archives. http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/US_2000.asp Evangelical Lutheran Church in America theology: Mainline Protestant congregations 2000: 10,739 adherents 2000: 5,113,418 adherence rate per 1000: 18.2 congregation change 1990-2000: -173 adherent change 1990-2000: -113,380 percent change 1990-2000: -2.2% Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod theology: Evangelical Protestant congregations 2000: 6,077 adherents 2000: 2,521,062 adherence rate per 1000: 9.0 congregation change 1990-2000: +57 adherent change 1990-2000: -82,663 percent change 1990-2000: -3.2% This data for the Missouri Synod is a bit surprising. See the full chart for a comparison of evangelical denominations to mainline denominations.
It’s true but it’s old data. Since 2000, ELCA has gone hell-bent left and they have lost about a half million in membership. LCMS losses put us around 2.4 million.
One thing that also accounts for LCMS losses during this time (and I don’t know if ELCA has done the same) but in the past, people who stopped attending were still kept on the roles. We basically started to drop people after sixth months (of course trying to contact them to make sure they were okay being dropped, because of any number of reasons, or that they wanted to remain). So more accurate record-keeping of who’s really an active member is a small part of our loss numbers the last 10 years too.