Editing The Urantia Book (section)

=== Adherents ===
It is difficult to gauge how many adherents there may be as there are multiple organizations to census. Informal study groups "tend to sprout, ripen, then vanish or splinter" and have not been counted reliably.{{sfn|Gooch|2002|p=14}} Readers sometimes join study groups after reading on their own for years or decades, others join them soon after developing an interest in the book, while "for most, worship remains as individual as the act of reading."{{sfn|Gooch|2002|pp=14–15}} Disagreements over the legal ownership of the book, its interpretation, and the reception of new revelations have led to some splintering, though these disagreements appear to have been settled to the satisfaction of most adherents.<ref name="Partridge2004" /> The movement generally incorporates a nonsectarian view, contending that individuals with different religious backgrounds can receive the book's teachings as an enrichment rather than as a contradiction of their faiths.<ref name="Melton1990" />

The movement inspired by ''The Urantia Book'' has not developed clergy or institutions such as churches, or temples.{{sfn|Gooch|2002}}<ref name="Partridge2004" />

Sarah Lewis notes that, "The Urantia Revelation is not securing legitimacy through historically known and accepted means to any great degree, nor is it even using common language that would increase the likelihood of understanding and therefore acceptance. It introduces new concepts and a new language, and this does not make acceptance any easier." She assesses that the movement is uncontroversial compared to other ones, "lacking the zealous proselytizing found within many other groups," and that it is therefore likely to remain small and unaffected by opposing views.{{sfn|Lewis|2007|p=211}}

Urantia Foundation advocated a "slow growth" policy in the past and had not significantly marketed the book.{{sfn|Gardner|1995|p=395}} Sales by Urantia Foundation went from 7,000 in 1990 to 24,700 in 1997, and steadily increased to nearly 38,000 in 2000, an "upturn that seems to represent a genuine trend rather than just some spike on a sales chart,"{{sfn|Gooch|2002|p=13}} but in 2011 Urantia Foundation reported worldwide annual sales of 16,000 copies and over 60,000 downloads from various sites. Since the book was determined to be in the [[public domain]] in 2001, other organizations, such as The Urantia Book Fellowship under the publishing name Uversa Press, have also published the book. Copies of ''The Urantia Book'' are on the Internet in various formats and it has been adapted to more recent platforms such as the [[Amazon Kindle|Kindle]] and the [[App Store (iOS)|iOS App Store]]. Several audio books of the text are also on the Internet.

The International Urantia Association had twenty-six reader associations worldwide as of 2002, and The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly the Urantia Brotherhood, founded in 1955 with Urantia Foundation as the original social fraternal organization of believers) claimed roughly twelve hundred official members, with the highest concentrations in the West of the United States and the [[Sun Belt]], especially California, Colorado, Florida, and Texas.{{sfn|Gooch|2002|pp=13–14}} It appears an increasing number of people are forming study groups, participating in Internet discussion groups, and hosting or visiting websites about it.{{sfn|Gooch|2002}}{{Page needed|date=October 2017}}