mh

New Study: Only Five Percent of Americans Regularly Attend Church

A new report has found that America’s church attendance could be much lower than previously thought.

The Washington Post recently released a breakdown of America’s faith habits. Using data from the U.S. Religious Census, The Post‘s Department of Data mapped out the “geography of religious devotion.” But their report uncovered something far more interesting than just regional religious preferences.

Across the U.S., as few as 5% of the population regularly attends religious services. That’s a major difference from surveys from Pew or Gallup, who put weekly church attendance at 21 to 30%.

If The Post‘s math is right, it means only one person in 20 attends church (or mosque or synagogue) at least three times each month.

Of course, that depends on where you are in the country. Regular attendance varies from state to state. The South — aka the Bible Belt — has higher attendance numbers than the North: 6.4% in Kentucky, 7.2% in Arkansas, 8.6% in Tennessee. Utah by far has the highest numbers with 11.8%. At the bottom is Vermont with just 0.7%.
To make that statistic even more surprising, the 5% estimate is using pre-pandemic numbers. And since church attendance has notably declined since 2020, the number could be lower at this point.
Experts argue that America’s declining interest in religion is largely driven by the rise of “nones” — Americans with no religious affiliation — which has risen from 9% in 2000 to 28% as of this year. This is especially prevalent in young adults ages 18 to 29, who are already the least likely demographic to attend services regularly. According to Gallup, 35% of young adults say they have no religious preference, higher than the national average.

Title: New Study: Only Five Percent of Americans Regularly Attend Church
URL: https://relevantmagazine.com/culture/new-study-only-five-percent-of-americans-regularly-attend-church/
Source: REL ::: RELEVANT
Source URL: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/rss/relevantmagazine.xml
Date: July 18, 2024 at 11:30PM
Feedly Board(s): Religion