The increase in the number of community organizations offering educational programs prompted the first national survey of adult education sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). All private, nonprofit organizations were included whose prime reason for existence was to offer services, or to serve as a vehicle for association, to members of the general public. Six groups of organizations were surveyed: churches; religious other than churches; Y's (YMCA, YWCA, WMHA, and YWHA) and Red Cross chapters; civic; social service; and cultural and other organizations. Of the 4,650 units selected more than a fourth (28.5 percent) indicated they conducted adult education activities of the type requested. Results were obtained on the number of participating organizations (over 75 percent were churches), size of programs, location, courses and registration, participant characteristics (58 percent women, 14 percent black, median age 38.3), teaching staff (78 percent volunteers, 22 percent paid, totaling more than 654,000), methods of operation, teaching methods, and sources of income. The survey showed that 321,000 adult education programs were offered by 66,770 organizations to nearly 11 million adults in 1972. A detailed description of the survey methodology, the survey instrument, and a bibliography are appended, and make up about one-half of the document. (BP)