Church attendance remains just one piece of the puzzle for measuring church growth and engagement. A new Barna study sheds light on a significant shift in church attendance—men now outpace women in this metric.
“Churches are losing women more than they are gaining men,” according to a new Barna study.
Barna Reports a ’25-Year Reversal’ in Church Attendance by Men and Women
The Barna Group spent 25 years conducting “online and telephone interviews within nationwide random samples of 132,020 adults.” According to the research, there’s a great increase in men’s church attendance. This uptick is in stark contrast to the decades-long trend of women outnumbering men in church.
“While men traditionally have been less likely to participate in church life, the current data, released as part of Barna’s ongoing State of the Church initiative with Gloo, tells a different story,” said Barna, “one that points both to signs of renewal in the Church and to specific, concerning areas of decline.”
The new study found “43 percent of men and 36 percent of women report attending church regularly, based on reported weekly attendance.” And this isn’t a brand-new trend. “In five of the last six years, men have outpaced women in this key measure of religious engagement, and the 2025 gap is the largest measured,” the study found.
Church attendance among young men and women, particularly Gen Z, is on the rise. In fact, this generation is the “most engaged.”
“These shifts reveal new patterns of participation and disengagement among key groups that may reshape the fabric of church life in the years to come,” said Barna.
Barna identified possible causes behind the shift in church attendance—especially for Gen Z women. Church attendance and engagement can be just one more task on a woman’s plate while she navigates demands from her career, family, and side gigs.
Women who are waiting to get married are finding it harder to engage in a church setting as young, single women. Some women are also becoming disenchanted with church life, especially in a male-dominated church setting. Further, countless cases of moral failures and sexual abuse by male church leadership have broken trust with women across the country.
“When women see repeated examples of moral failure, abuse, or hypocrisy in church leadership, it deepens their disillusionment,” said Barna CEO David Kinnaman.
Barna also found that loneliness is a significant “emotional undercurrent” for people in the church, including pastors and leaders. Especially since the pandemic, pastors have found themselves without an ongoing support structure in ministry.
Taking a specific look at parents, Barna found that married dads are much more likely to attend church. However, single moms are now reported as the least likely to attend church regularly.
The faith of parents plays a crucial role in shaping the faith of children and youth. Barna found 78% of practicing Christians say that their mothers modeled a strong religious faith (compared to 57% who say this of their dads).
