In 2022, just over a third (36%) said they attend at least once a year. Another third (33%) said they never attend — up from 25% in 2020.
Cox said generational shifts and the broader polarization in society likely played a role in the attendance decline.
Younger Americans are less likely in general to identify as religious or attend services — the 2021 General Social Survey found that 41.5% of Americans between 18 and 29 said they never attend services, with 20.6 percent saying they attend more than once a month.
“Young Adults Experience Largest Change in Religious Attendance” Graphic courtesy of American Enterprise Institute
New political battlefronts also opened up during the pandemic, with vaccines and masks becoming points of contention and markers of political identity rather than public health interventions.
Conservative churches were likely to reopen sooner than more liberal congregations—making it easier for people to attend those churches in person.
The change in attendance patterns did not affect every group equally.
More than half of Latter-day Saints (72%) and white evangelicals (53%) said they attended service regularly in 2022, about the same rate as before the pandemic. Other groups saw little drop-off in regular attenders as well, including Black Protestants (36%), white Catholics (30%), Hispanic Catholics (23%), white mainliners (17%) and Jews (10%), all reporting similar regular attendance rates in 2022 as before the pandemic.
The survey did show, however, that in most faith groups, the infrequent attenders were the largest group. That includes about half of white Catholics (46%), Hispanic Catholics (47%), white mainliners (51%) and Jews (54%).
Black Protestant regular attenders (36%) and infrequent attenders (35%) were about the same size.
“Latter-day Saints (Mormons) Report Little Change in Patterns of Religious Attendance” Graphic courtesy of American Enterprise Institute
Cox found some hopeful news in the report, in that people have not given up their religious identity for the most part, even if they don’t attend. That gives religious leaders a chance to reconnect with larger numbers of people who still identify with religious traditions but don’t participate.
