Columbus County, North Carolina has 221 churches in the Churches List directory, 3 of them verified and 30 with a published website. The 2020 US Religion Census counted 174 congregations and 28,559 adherents across 27 religious bodies in the county. That is 564 adherents per 1,000 residents of its 50,629 people.
| Religious body | Congregations | Adherents | Per 1,000 pop. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Baptist Convention | 74 | 16,035 | 316.7 |
| United Methodist Church | 18 | 2,226 | 44.0 |
| Non-denominational Christian Churches | 14 | 2,220 | 43.8 |
| African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church | 9 | 1,398 | 27.6 |
| Convention of Original Free Will Baptist Churches | 10 | 1,273 | 25.1 |
| Catholic Church | 2 | 938 | 18.5 |
| National Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc. | 6 | 898 | 17.7 |
| Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | 2 | 624 | 12.3 |
| African Methodist Episcopal Church | 4 | 556 | 11.0 |
| Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | 6 | 416 | 8.2 |
| Assemblies of God | 3 | 272 | 5.4 |
| Jehovah's Witnesses | 2 | 250 | 4.9 |
Source: 2020 US Religion Census (Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies). Per-1,000 rates divide reported adherents by the county's 2020 Census population (50,629). Largest 12 bodies by adherents shown.
Damarest Jackson
Directory traditions here: Baptist Churches (111) · Non-Denominational (25) · Methodist (11) · Holiness (11) · African Methodist Episcopal (10) · United Methodist (8) · Pentecostal (7) · Church of God (5) · Presbyterian (4) · Seventh Day Adventist (4)
Church registers are among the richest genealogical sources: baptisms, marriages, and burials often predate civil records. The FamilySearch catalog holds microfilmed church records for many North Carolina counties, filed by denomination and parish name: search Columbus County church records on FamilySearch (free account). Cross-reference with the historic-register churches above and the cemeteries listed on each church's page.
FEMA has issued 29 disaster declarations covering Columbus County since records began in 1953, most recently in 2026. The most frequent cause: hurricane (22 declarations). Churches have historically served as shelters and relief hubs in these events; congregations can register preparedness plans with their county emergency management agency.
Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.
Directory listings are mapped to Columbus County through the US Census Bureau's 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file: each ZIP Code Tabulation Area is assigned to the county holding the largest share of its land area, so a small number of churches in ZIP codes that straddle county lines may be attributed to a neighboring county. Congregation and adherent counts come from the 2020 US Religion Census and are reported by the religious bodies themselves. Population is the county's April 2020 decennial-census base from the US Census Bureau's population-estimates program; per-1,000 adherence rates divide reported adherents by that figure. Corrections to any listing go through the corrections page.