Who We Are
First Church is a dynamic community that is enjoying remarkable growth. Between 1990 and 1998, church membership grew by 42 percent. Since then, First Church has added about 100 members a year, bringing the total of active members to over 1000.
Demographic Profile of New Members
First Church put together a demographic profile of 314 new members who joined between January, 1999, and April, 2002. The data provided an interesting snapshot of the new additions to First Church’s growing family:
- New members are a remarkably young group.
- Their average age today is 36.8, and almost 80 percent are under the age of 50.
- Women outnumber men by more than 3 to 2.
- While new members come from far and wide, about 60 percent live in Manhattan below 23rd Street.
- They represent a diversity of household types, with only 48 percent identified as married.
- Like the congregation as a whole, they are predominantly white, but 16 percent are of other ethnicities.
- They are very diverse in terms of the work they do. No single occupation accounts for more than 11 percent of the total.
- Among these 314 new members, there are 58 families with children.