Posted November 22, 2005
The Demographics on Lay Ministers
Taken from Lay Parish Minsters: A Study of Emerging Leadership
by David
DeLambo, associate director of pastoral planning
for the Diocese of
Cleveland
Number of Lay Ministers
Extrapolating from our 2005 data, there are now 30,632 lay parish ministers
working at least 20 hours per week in paid positions, an increase of 5
percent since 1997. The ratio of lay parish ministers to parishes is
1.61-to-1. Add in unpaid ministers, and the ratio rises to 1.72 lay
ministers per parish.
Two-thirds of all parishes (66 percent) have paid lay ministers working at
least 20 hours per week, up from 54 percent in 1990 and 60 percent in 1997.
Add in unpaid ministers working 20 hours per week and the percent of
parishes with lay ministers on staff increased to 68 percent.
Work Status
The overwhelming majority of lay parish ministers are paid: 93.4 percent.
Only 6.6 percent are not paid. Among salaried lay ministers, 74 percent are
full time; 26 percent part time.
Ecclesial Status
The decline of women religious in parish ministry continues. In 1990 four
in 10 lay parish ministers (41 percent) were women religious. By 1997 the
percentage had dropped to 28 percent, and by 2005, to 16 percent.
Conversely, the proportion of laywomen (who are not vowed religious) in
parish ministry has grown steadily from 44 percent in 1990, to 54 percent in
1997 and 64 percent in 2005.
The percentage of men in parish ministry has gone up from 15 percent in
1990, to 18 perdcent in 1997, to 20 percent in 2005.
Nearly a quarter of the laymen have explored or pursued a vocation in
religious or priestly life.
Age
In 2005 the median age of religious in parish ministry was 64, versus 61 in
1997 and 58 in 1990. The median age of laypersons (not including religious)
in 2005 was 52, compared with 47 in 1997 and 45 in 1990.
Race and Ethnicity
Of lay ministers, 88.5 percent are white; other ethnic groups comprise a
mere 11.5 percent. Still, these figures show much greater diversity than the
6.4 percent in 1997. However, such groups constitute 25.7 percent of unpaid
parish ministers working at least 20 hours a week.
Education
The percentage of lay parish ministers with a master’s degree or better
dropped to 48.1 percent in 2005 — below the 52.8 percent in 1990.
In Relation to Parish Locale
The percentage of parishes employing a lay parish minister is growing in
every locale but particularly in the inner-city urban business districts and
in small towns, where percentages have increased from 50 percent, 54 percent
and 59 percent to 76 percent, 89 percent and 68 percent respectively.
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