A new survey from Gallup suggests that church attendance has been in decline over the last several years, across most major religious groups in the United States.
As reported by Breitbart, the data finds that between the years of 2021 and 2023, just 30% of Americans reported church attendance on a weekly basis, with 21% saying they attend church every week and 9% saying they attend almost every week. Meanwhile, only 11% said they attended once a month. By contrast, 56% reported rarely attending church, with 25% saying they attend only occasionally while 31% said they never attend.
“Two decades ago, an average of 42 percent of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week. A decade ago, the figure fell to 38 percent, and it is currently at 30 percent,” wrote Gallup Senior Editor Jeffrey Jones. “This decline is largely driven by the increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation — 9 percent in 2000-2003 versus 21 percent in 2021-2023 — almost all of whom do not attend services regularly.”
The denomination with the highest church attendance rate is Mormonism, with 67% saying they attend church on a weekly basis. Protestants are a distant second place, with 44%. Muslims come in third with 38%, with Catholics in a close fourth at 33%.
“Majorities of Jewish, Orthodox, Buddhist and Hindu Americans say they seldom or never attend religious services,” the survey adds. “Twenty-six percent of Orthodox adults, 22% of Jewish adults, 14% of Buddhist adults and 13% of Hindu adults attend services regularly.”
The largest decrease in attendance during the observed time period was among those who identify with “other” religions outside of the major denominations, as these groups are “generally not large enough to report separately as their own group, or those that are difficult to categorize based on respondents’ answers,” the study continues.
One of the major factors to which Jones attributes the trend is the increasing lack of religious identity among younger Americans, which he says will only accelerate the decline.
“Specifically, more 18- to 29-year-olds, 35 percent, say they have no religious preference than identify with any specific faith, such as Protestant/nondenominational Christian (32 percent) or Catholic (19 percent),” Jones explains. “Additionally, young adults, both those with and without a religious preference, are much less likely to attend religious services — 22 percent attend regularly, eight points below the national average.”
The poll was conducted over the course of three years via phone interviews with 32,445 American adults. The margin of error is one percent, with a confidence level of 95%.
At first glance that seems like a terrible development, unless one has been to “church” recently. The eye-opener was the willingness of priests and ministers or other religious “leaders” to go along with lockdowns. In place of messages fortifying the mystical body of Christ, pew sitters hear harangues about social justice, political activity, accommodating illegal aliens, welcoming and endorsing same-sex marriage, giving money, more money, followed by “give us everything you’ve got, and make sure you give us everything when you die,” without much mention of how to live your life well or how to maintain your faith in age of faithlessness. At times, it would be refreshing (and for young people, instructive) to hear a fire and brimstone sermon from a pulpit, especially about adultery, abortion and premarital sex. Those are long gone for fear of offending people. The churches themselves, don’t look like houses of God. The most well-attended “church” near me looks (no kidding) like a Borg spaceship. There isn’t a cross or reference to Christ anywhere in sight. I’m wondering why Orthodox Christians didn’t get a mention as Orthodoxy is the fastest growing branch of Christianity in America? Listen to Pope Franny and it’s not difficult to figure out why. They still believe marriage is between a man and a woman, that any sex outside of marriage is a sin, along with homosexuality. Their churches are beautiful, awe-inspiring and bring one’s attention to God, not the weird bubble-glass thingamajig hanging over the altar at the local Catholic Church. All of those statues and beautiful stations of the cross that used to decorate Catholic churches were comforting reminders of ordinary people’s journey to salvation and their response to suffering. When they ripped those out, well, the rest looked fairly pedestrian and Protestant. Don’t even get me started on the horrible music! I can actually hear the angels weeping over the pop-music inspired junk that passes for “sacred” music.
Many people in my community attend home churches and Bible studies or even home mosques. They are certainly faith-filled. Organized religion, which underpinned this republic is more an enemy of the American people than a reinforcing structure these days. Is it a mystery that so many people feel abandoned by them and turn elsewhere?
“First they tell you there is no heaven.
If there is no heaven, then there is no hell.
If there is no hell, then there is no judgement.
If there is no judge then evil is good and good is evil.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen