U.S. choirs mostly church-based

Christian Century, April 5, 2003

A new study of choruses estimates that there are 250,000 choruses nationwide, and the vast majority of them--200,000--are church choirs.

The research by Chorus America, the Washington-based service group for North American choruses, included a poll of 1,000 adults that found that one or more adults in 15.6 percent of households performed in a chorus in public in the previous year. Besides church choirs, singers may be found in 38,000 school choruses and 12,000 professional and community choruses, researchers estimated.

"The study found that far more people participate in choral singing than in any other performing art," states the executive summary of "America's Performing Art."

Choral singers are often more involved in community work than the average American, and 63 percent of choristers reported charitable giving to other arts organizations, compared with 18.8 percent of U.S. households cited in a 2001 study by Independent Sector.--RNS