There are in Ohio 1,343 townships (see Table I) which are wholly or partly made up of open country or villages of less than 2,500 inhabitants. (This number of inhabitants having been selected by the United States Census as marking the line between urban and rural, we have necessarily followed.) In the strictly rural townships and the rural sections of townships which are partly urban or suburban, there is altogether a population of more than two million persons, and 6,642 churches. These figures give us, on an average, 1,516 persons and five rural churches to a township, and 307 persons to a church. Of townships which border on cities and towns of more than 2,500 persons, there are 173. In townships of this class there are 342,077 persons and 582 churches, while for each township there are 1,977 persons and three churches, or 587 persons to a church. It is presumable that many persons in these suburban townships attend the churches in the neighboring cities or large towns. If we subtract the suburban townships from the 1,343 mentioned above, there remain 1,170 townships which are strictly rural. Unless otherwise stated all deductions have been drawn exclusively from these rural townships. The 1,170 strictly rural townships contain nearly 1,700,000 persons and 6,060 churches. They have, on an average, 1,448 persons and five churches to a township and 280 persons to a church. Although there are 6,060 churches in the 1,170 strictly rural townships, their membership records are so often incomplete that satisfactory figures were found for only 4,941 churches. The membership of 3,351 of these churches, or 68 per cent, is not more than 100; in 2,704, or 55 per cent, the membership is not more than 75; while in 1,817, or 37 per cent, the membership is not more than 50. (See Table II.) TABLE I POPULATION, AVERAGE NUMBER OF PERSONS AND CHURCHES, AND AVERAGE NUMBER OF PERSONS TO A CHURCH, BY TOWNSHIPS 1 _Strictly rural townships_ 2 _Other rural sections_ 3 _All rural sections_ 1 2 3 Number of townships 1,170 173 1,343 Population of rural townships 1,693,951 342,077 2,036,028 Number persons per township 1,448 1,977 1,516 Number churches per township 5 3 5 Number of churches 6,060 582 6,642 Number persons per church 280 587 307