The United Methodist Church

See Also: Methodist Church (Encyclopedia of North Carolina)

by Alfred W. Stuart
Professor Emeritus of Geography, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2010.
Reprinted with permission from The North Carolina Atlas Revisited. Managing editor: Alfred W. Stuart.

Along with Baptists, Methodist congregations were the only ones that were represented in every one of the state’s 100 counties (Figure 10, above) and they had the second largest number of adherents in North Carolina. They also had a modest increase in number between 1990 and 2000. These congregations are somewhat larger than most, with 325 adherents per church. The Methodist church is the only one that has more adherents is any county than does the Baptist church. This happens in 10 counties, almost all along the northern coast or the Inner Coastal Plain back of the coast. Although not more numerous than Baptists, Methodist congregations are also well represented throughout much of the Piedmont corridor, but their proportions drop off somewhat in both the eastern and western parts of the state. That is where most of the counties that have fewer than 5% Methodist adherents in their populations are located.

A significant factor in the development of the Methodist church in North Carolina has been the financial support for Methodist church development that is provided by the Duke Endowment.