Some Facts About The Church Of England

 Today, the Church of England has more than 23,500 licensed ministers. About 9,500 are stipendiary clergy, including 114 bishops. Just over 2,000 are non-stipendiary ministers or ordained local ministers and more than 10,300 are Readers. In addition, there are nearly 300 Church Army Evangelists and 100 accredited stipendiary layworkers. Some 1,250 are chaplains in  hospitals, the Forces, schools and prisons and a hundred are ordained members of religious communities. Not included in these figures are more than 4,800 retired clergy with parochial appointments or licences or permission to officiate nor the 650 non-cleric members of religious communities. There are also 32,000 churchwardens and scores of hundreds of parish administrators and lay ministry teams.

In addition to those who regularly worship, more than 31 million people visited a UK church or cathedral in 1999.