Not easy to find good numbers for this, particularly for the US. One source [1] refers to around 65k, another source's number [2] is an order of magnitude higher. Of course, church isn't very specific: it could refer to only christian houses of worship, to houses of worship of various sizes, it could refer to the religions themselves, etc.
For Germany, numbers are more reliable: there are about 45000 christian churches (split roughly 50/50 between catholic and protestant, [3][4][5]). Plus about 2500 synagogues and less than a thousand mosques [6], so less than 50k overall. I imagine that the situation in other Western European countries is similar, but it'd be interesting to know if that's true.
So depending on the correct number for the US, the number of churches in the US is either a lot lower or a lot higher. Huh, I guess this isn't very helpful. :D
For Germany, numbers are more reliable: there are about 45000 christian churches (split roughly 50/50 between catholic and protestant, [3][4][5]). Plus about 2500 synagogues and less than a thousand mosques [6], so less than 50k overall. I imagine that the situation in other Western European countries is similar, but it'd be interesting to know if that's true.
So depending on the correct number for the US, the number of churches in the US is either a lot lower or a lot higher. Huh, I guess this isn't very helpful. :D
[1] http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070129165140AA... [2] http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/721939.html http://www.ev-akademiker.de/projekte/kirchen-oeffnen-und-erh... [3] http://www.ev-akademiker.de/projekte/kirchen-oeffnen-und-erh... [4] http://www.ekd.de/aktuell_presse/news_2005_09_30_3_rv_kirchb... [5] http://www.ekd.de/aktuell_presse/news_2005_09_30_3_rv_kirchb... [6] http://www.cosmiq.de/qa/show/1470093/Wie-viele-Synagogen-und...