Why is church attendance declining

According to researchers, there has been a sharp increase among the youngest generations in the United States of people who do not identify with any specific religion. This trend is displayed by a growing number of younger people who do not claim any specific religion or religious affiliation, plus it refers to a growing percentage of the population of the newest generations who are not prone to join any specific church.

This national trend is definitely a significant part of the reason why there is a decline in church membership. There was once a time when Christianity dominated American society.

That is no longer the case. It seems as if the majority of people no longer accept a Christian worldview. The current American culture most likely does not see the church as an important part of their lives and in fact, probably looks at the church in a negative light. Most would agree that there has been a growing emphasis in the church to attract spectators instead of participants.

Gallup does not have sufficient data to analyze the trends for other religious faiths. In addition to Protestants, declines in church membership are proportionately smaller among political conservatives, Republicans, married adults and college graduates.

These groups tend to have among the highest rates of church membership, along with Southern residents and non-Hispanic Black adults. Over the past two decades, declines in church membership have been greater among Eastern residents and Democrats.

Still, political independents have lower rates of church membership than Democrats do. The smaller declines seen among conservatives and other subgroups are largely attributable to more modest change among older generations within those groups.

For example, conservatives in older generations have shown drops in church membership of between five and 13 points since , compared with the point change among all U. Analysis of changes over time in Hispanic adults' church membership is complicated by a shift in Gallup methodology to include Spanish-language interviewing in all surveys beginning in Church membership rates are significantly lower among Hispanic respondents interviewed in Spanish than among Hispanic respondents interviewed in English.

Thus, a comparison of current Hispanic church membership to past membership would overstate the decline by virtue of comparing mixed-language Hispanics today to English-speaking Hispanics, alone, in the earlier period.

The U. However, far fewer, now less than half, have a formal membership with a specific house of worship. While it is possible that part of the decline seen in was temporary and related to the coronavirus pandemic, continued decline in future decades seems inevitable, given the much lower levels of religiosity and church membership among younger versus older generations of adults. Churches are only as strong as their membership and are dependent on their members for financial support and service to keep operating.

But the fact that the direction of the trend is similar in both studies strongly suggests that both are picking up on real and significant change underway in the U. Latino adults fielded almost every year. See the detailed tables for complete trends in the religious composition of Hispanics based on both Pew Research Center political surveys and the NSL.

For complete information about trends in the religious composition and worship attendance habits of the U. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account. Research Topics. For details about the methodology employed for the and Religious Landscape Studies, click here. If the next Religious Landscape Study is conducted using a self-administered mode of survey administration e. Membership then tripled this year. He was in Pensacola, Florida, when the "Brownsville revival," which attracted an estimated 2.

He says he feels something similar to Brownsville is coming. Churches were inviting me to speak on revival, people were coming to the altar calls. The Covid crisis and racial tensions drove people to their knees even more. We got distracted with Trump and the elections, but we're back on track now. The reality that we either have an awakening or America collapses really strikes me.

It's about revival. Revival will help keep the freedom of America. Feucht's effort in that direction is a 21st century version of crusade evangelism; meeting and marching in edgy neighborhoods or - in one instance — singing from the steps of the California State Capitol building in Sacramento. His merch table is loaded with T-shirts with slogans like "Worship is Essential" and "The Church Has Left the Building" and if there's been a silver lining to houses of worship being shut down much of , it's been this movement of taking "church" to the public square.

Christian and Gospel Albums on Sept.