One of the statistics that is frequently cited but never sourced is the survivability and health of church plants. I've heard quite an array of statistics—but one of my favorites is that often repeated "80 percent of new churches fail in the first year." Well, not so fast.

 It is not easy to determine how many actually fail, but it is an important question. We decided to try to help inform our churches and partners about what is really happening in church planting. Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing the results of our study. In this briefing, we will look at the survivability of new churches.
We shared data with 11 denominations and networks to survey more than 2,000 new churches planted from 2000 to 2005. We were able to determine the status of 1,000 of them and phone interviewed 500 of them. (NAMB Center For Missional Research)

 Church Planting Survivability and Health Study - Full Report (pdf)