The 1998 and 2006 National Congregations Studies (NCS) collected data from 1,234 and 1,506 congregations, respectively, about a wide range of their characteristics and activities.

A grant from the Lilly Endowment makes it possible to gather new data from another high quality national sample of approximately 1,300 congregations in 2012 by interviewing a key informant, usually a clergyperson, in each congregation. The primary goals of this project are to (i) gather and disseminate important and up-to-date basic information about American congregations, (ii) study if and how American religious congregations have changed over time, and (iii) gather and disseminate first-time information on topics that were not explored in 1998 or 2006-07. This project will replicate, to the extent possible, the sampling strategy, data collection methods, and many of the items used in the 1998 and 2006 surveys.