Facts & Statistics About the Seventh Day Adventist Church

Seventh-day Adventists are one of the fastest-growing Christian churches in the world today adding more than one new member by baptism every 50 seconds of every day and organizing five new congregations daily. Membership in the world Church exceeded 8 million in mid-1994 with an average of 1,792 people being added each day a sign of solid growth. From the Church's beginnings in the United States, today, nine out of ten members live elsewhere - in 209 other countries of the world.

Growth in China believers has been phenomenal in a country without a national Church organization. During 1993 one congregation, led by two local elders, held the second largest single baptism in Seventh-day Adventist history when 4,415 became believers. In 1994, 2,300 were baptized over two days in a province in Northern China. With the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, new doors of opportunity for mission and educational work have opened. The first-ever Seventh-day Adventist church building in Albania was officially dedicated in the city Korce, and two Adventist schools have moved to new locations in the Czech Republic and Romania.

Seventh-day Adventists are communicating to their different publics using new communications technologies. A new personal and corporate communication era began for the Church when the SDAs On-line forum on CompuServe Information Service opened in July 1994. More than 2,200 members joined the forum by March of 1995, and 300 are now joining each month. Church members can directly communicate with clergy and church leaders, and users can download news about the Church, information files, inspirational materials and statistics. In 1994 Adventist News Network (ANN), an official press agency from world headquarters, was launched; and Adventist Communication Network (ACN) began broadcasting via satellite to 800 churches in North America. ACN produced Net'95, a live five-week series of meetings with evangelist Mark Finley, to more than 60,000 viewers. Adventist World Radio (AWR) continued its expansion in 1994 by adding new languages and transmitters. Today, AWR broadcasts 1,000 hours per week in 37 languages from 15 transmitters in seven international locations. In 1995, the Seventh-day Adventist Church entered the world of Internet with a Web page providing information about the Church.

Seventh-day Adventists have one of the broadest centralized Protestant educational systems in the world (5,530 schools, colleges and universities) and have one of the most comprehensive network of health-care providers (664 hospitals, clinics, medical launches and medivac planes, orphanages, and homes for the elderly). Adventists speak in at least 713 languages and another thousand dialects, leading to the establishment of 56 Church-owned printing plants and editorial offices including the newest in Russia and Bulgaria.

Seventh-day Adventist Church World Statistics

Churches, Membership, and Employees

Churches - world 38, 816**
North America 4,642**
Church membership - world 8,382,554**
North America 822,150**
Baptisms and professions of faith 654,055
Ordained ministers, active 12,144
Total active employees 136,539

Mission to the World

Countries and areas as recognized by the United Nations 236
Countries in which SDA work is established 209
Areas targeted 6,112
Areas entered 4,398
Divisions 11
Unions 92
Conferences, missions, and fields 447

Educational Program

Primary schools 4,492

Secondary schools 953

Tertiary institutions 85

Total schools 5,530

Enrollment - primary schools 609,941

Enrollment - secondary schools 167,326

Enrollment - tertiary institutions 51,566

Total enrollment 828,833

Food Industries

Food Industries 35

Health Ministry

Hospitals and sanitariums 148

Clinics and dispensaries 354

Nursing homes & retirement centers, orphanages & children's homes 92

Airplanes and medical launches 70

Physicians, dentists, residents, and interns employed 2,820

Graduate nurses employed 15,754

Outpatient visits 7,009,906

Assets of health-care institutions (1992) $4,805,016,874

Publishing Work

Publishing houses and branches 56

Literature evangelists, credentialed & licensed 7,684

Languages used in publications and oral work 713

Languages used in publications 206

Sabbath Schools

Sabbath schools 74,187

Sabbath school membership 9,437,832

Contributions

Tithe - world $743,983,762

North America $454,792,768

Tithe Per Capita - world $108.87

North America $580.50

Sabbath School Mission Offerings - world $42,357,428

North America $20,297,241

Ingathering - world $12,914,885

North America $5,538,053

Total Tithe and Offerings - world $1,122,302,148

North America $728,482,518

Total Tithe and Offerings Per Capita - world $164.23

North America $929.85

Broadcast and Bible School Ministries

Radio stations used each week 924

TV stations used each week 1,229

Bible school enrollments 492,319

Bible school graduates 250,237