Top 15 Reporting Religious Bodies Asheville, NC
Church, Christian, or Religious Body	Adherents (and rank)						Congregations
	in 2000			in 1990			in 2000	in 1990
Southern Baptist Convention	65,853	(1)		64,180	(1)		160	157
United Methodist Church, The	15,522	(2)		15,093	(2)		63	66
Catholic Church, The	8,745	(3)		4,519	(6)		6	7
Presbyterian Church (USA)	5,279	(4)		5,016	(5)		21	20
Seventh-day Adventist Church	3,812	(5)		1,928	(10)		10	6
Episcopal Church	3,410	(6)		2,971	(8)		11	11
Presbyterian Church in America	3,396	(7)		2,802	(9)		11	10
Independent, Non-Charismatic Churches	2,000	(8)		300	(26)		2	1
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	1,962	(9)		1,331	(12)		15	11
National Association of Free Will Baptists	1,633	(10)		1,776	(11)		13	15
Jewish Estimate	1,300	(11)		13,050	(3)		2	2
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	1,242	(12)		1,005	(13)		3	3
American Baptist Churches in the USA	1,200	(13)		628	(16)		3	2
Assemblies of God	1,190	(14)		881	(14)		3	3
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The	940	(15)		489	(19)		3	2

Metropolitan Population, 2000 Census:		225,965
Percent of Population Claimed by Reporting Groups:		54.5%

National Average: 50.2% claimed

Reporting Groups (149 possible):	46	(39 of 133 in 1990)
Total Reported Adherents:	123,202	(129,594 in 1990)
Total Reported Congregations:	394	(384 in 1990)

The metro area included 2 counties (or equivalent) at the time of the 2000 census:
	Buncombe County, NC; Madison County, NC
	The newly published book Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000 includes a CD that allows users to determine such lists for any selected group of counties.
Source:	Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000 Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1990
	Both studies, copyrighted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, are published by the Glenmary Research Center, Nashville, Tenn. More information is available at www.glenmary.org/grc.