U.S. Church Attendance Below Pre-Pandemic Level

A Gallup News poll found that church attendance in the United States has declined since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

“U.S. The survey found that church attendance is down slightly but noticeably compared to what it was prior to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Details of the report:

In the four-year period before the pandemic (2016 through 2019), an average of 34% of U.S. adult respondents said that they attended church, synagogue or mosque in the last seven days. The average from 2020 to present is 30 percent. This includes a reading of 31 percent in a survey conducted between May 1-24.

Gallup reported that church attendance is roughly 10 percentage points less than what Gallup measured in 2012 or years before.

The survey report says that it is unclear if this is due to the pandemic or if this is just a continuation of a trend already underway. The survey report states that “However the temporary closing of churches and the ongoing COVID-19 prevention activities did cause many Americans to stop attending religious services on a weekly basis.”

In the survey, attendance rates have fallen since 2020 for nearly all major subgroups except political liberals and non-religious adults. These groups already had low levels of attendance before the pandemic.

The percentage of Protestants attending church has dropped from 44 to 40 percent and the percentage of Catholics attending church has decreased from 37 to 30 percent. Gallup says that the sample sizes of other religious groups are too small for reliable estimations.

Republicans, Democrats and Independents all show similar trends in declining church attendance. Republicans (40%) are more likely to attend religious services than Democrats (25%) and Independents (25%)

In addition, the survey found that young adults aged 18-34 are least likely than other age groups to have been to church in the past seven days. Eighty-two per cent of those in this age group did not attend church in the last week.

This is in line with other recent surveys that have shown a decline in religious interest among youth. In a Wall Street Journal-NORC survey released in March, young respondents were found to be less likely than older respondents to consider religion “very important”.

Gallup’s survey found that the attendance of every other age group in the last seven days ranged between 27 to 31 percent. Adults aged 55 and over had the highest rate of remote attendance, at 8 percent.

Gallup surveyed religious attendance in April 2020. At that time, 4 percent reported attending in person, while 27 percent said they attended virtually. This trend continued throughout most of 2020. In May 2021, the church attendance rate “remained steady at 30% with approximately twice as many people attending in person than remotely,” according to a poll report.

Since May 2021, the number of attendees in person has increased, reaching 26 percent by May 2023. Just 5 percent of regular participants still attend virtually, according to the survey.

The survey took place between May 1, 2023 and April 24, 2023. It included 1,011 U.S. adult respondents. The margin of error at 95 percent confidence is +-4 percent.