New polling data from Gallup revealed that church attendance has declined across most religious groups in the United States during the past 20 years, but there are many fewer “nones”—people with no religion at all—than there were just a couple of years ago.
The drop in church attendance across the last generation has been dramatic. Between 2000 and 2003, 42% of U.S. all adults said they attended religious services. By 2013, that number had dropped four points, to 38%. But as of 2023, about 30% of American adults were attending religious services. That is a cumulative drop of 12 percentage points, or 28%.
Twenty-one percent (21%) said they attend weekly, 9% attend “almost every week,” and 11% attend church or religious services once a month. The majority of U.S. adults (56%) “seldom” or “never” attend.
Mormons were the most regular congregants, with 67% saying they attend weekly (54%), or almost every week (13%). Protestant groups, including nondenominational Christians, are the second-greatest church-goers at 44%, 30% saying the attend every week, and 14% saying they attend “almost every week.”
“Majorities of Jewish, Orthodox, Buddhist and Hindu Americans say they seldom or never attend religious services,” reported Gallup. Muslim mosque attendance is up from 34% in 2003 to 38% in 2023.
Among all U.S. groups, only about 3 in 10 adults attend religious services. Gallup believes that church attendance will likely continue to decline due to “younger Americans’ weaker attachments to religion.”
The “nones”—those with no religion at all—grew rapidly during this 20-year period, but not in the past two years. A Pew Research poll found that 28% of Americans are “nones,” but as recently as two years ago, in 2022, that number was 31%. So the “nones” rapidly shrunk by about 10%, or 3 points. Perhaps people are finding that there is no way to cope with what has happened to America over the last two or three years without the consolation of religious faith.
Of the “nones,” 17% are atheist, 20% are agnostic, and 63% are just “nothing in particular.” If you do the math, hard core non-believers, atheists, are a very small group in America, about 5% of the population. Most of the “nones” are amenable to evangelism of some sort.
“And let us not give up meeting together. Some are in the habit of doing this. Instead, let us encourage one another with words of hope. Let us do this even more as you see Christ’s return approaching.” Hebrews 10:25
For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good. Psalm 14:1