U.S. Church Attendance Hits New Low

(ConservativeInsider.org) – A recent survey has found that church attendance in the US is significantly lower than before the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, over a four-year period between 2016 and 2019, an average of 34 per cent of adults in the US said that they had attended either a church, temple, mosque, or synagogue on a weekly basis. However, since 2020, the average has dropped to 30 per cent.

The survey report said that it was unclear whether the pandemic was a causation of the downward trend, or whether it was merely a correlation which reflected trends that were already in progress. It said that many Americans would have gotten out of the habit of going to churches and other places of worship due to the closure of public buildings and associated pandemic avoidance edicts.

The attendance rate was found to be lower in almost every major subgroup since 2020, with the exception being that of adults of no declared religious affiliation and political liberals, whose attendance levels were already low even before the pandemic. The survey covered people who attended virtual services online as well as those who attended in person.The highest number of people of a particular denomination who responded to the survey were Protestants, whose attendance was down from 44 per cent to 40 per cent. Catholics on the other hand, reported attendances down from 37 per cent to 30 per cent. Other religious groups provided sample sizes that were too small for meaningful comparisons to be obtained, said Gallup.

Republicans are more likely to attend religious services (40 per cent) compared to independents and Democrats, whose sub-groups polled 25 per cent each. However, the poll found that young people were the least likely of all to attend places of worship, with 82 per cent reporting that they did not attend on a weekly basis. This result correlates with the results of other recent surveys.