Not easy to find good numbers for this, particularly for the US. One source [1] refers to around 65k, another source's number [2] is an order of magnitude higher. Of course, church isn't very specific: it could refer to only christian houses of worship, to houses of worship of various sizes, it could refer to the religions themselves, etc.
For Germany, numbers are more reliable: there are about 45000 christian churches (split roughly 50/50 between catholic and protestant, [3][4][5]). Plus about 2500 synagogues and less than a thousand mosques [6], so less than 50k overall. I imagine that the situation in other Western European countries is similar, but it'd be interesting to know if that's true.
So depending on the correct number for the US, the number of churches in the US is either a lot lower or a lot higher. Huh, I guess this isn't very helpful. :D
Most churches in America aren't churches in the sense meant here, the traditional church building. Many church services are held in random buildings that have been re-purposed as houses of worship, and even the buildings built as churches are often more modern and pragmatic in their approach and don't necessarily look like traditional churches or follow the traditional 'rules'.
Cities have less churches, I guess, but towns tend to have more since there is more diversity of religion. My little borough in CT has 7-8 churches, several of which are 150 years old.
OTOH, I don't think the churches point in any reliable direction. They just all face the town square.
"American cities have hardly any churches compared to Europe". what? I thought there were loads of churches in america?