Most millennials were too young to be polled in Now that they have reached adulthood, their church membership rates are exceedingly low and appear to be a major factor in the drop in overall U.
The low rates of church membership among millennials conform with the generation's weaker attachment to religion in general. Not only are millennials less likely than older Americans to identify with a religion, but millennials who are religious are significantly less likely to belong to a church. The lower rate of church membership among religious millennials appears to be more a product of generational differences than of life-stage effects.
Given that church membership, and religiosity in general, is greater among older adults, the emergence of an increasingly secular generation to replace far more religious older generations suggests the decline in U.
Gallup has previously reported that church attendance has dropped more among Catholics than among Protestants.
Consistent with this, the decline in church membership has been greater among Catholics. Much of the decline in Protestant membership is attributable to the increasing percentage of Americans who simply identify their religion as "Christian" rather than as a specific Protestant denomination such as Baptist, Lutheran or Methodist.
In contrast to the variable changes in church membership among generational and faith subgroups, the declines have been fairly similar among most other demographic subgroups. Although the United States is one of the more religious countries, particularly among Western nations , it is far less religious than it used to be.
Barely three-quarters of Americans now identify with a religion and only about half claim membership in a church, synagogue or mosque. The rate of U. A sharp increase in the proportion of the population with no religious affiliation, a decline in church membership among those who do have a religious preference, and low levels of church membership among millennials are all contributing to the accelerating trend.
The challenge is clear for churches, which depend on loyal and active members to keep them open and thriving. How do they find ways to convince some of the unaffiliated religious adults in society to make a commitment to a particular house of worship of their chosen faith?
Roughly one in four U. Church leaders must also grapple with the generational slide away from religion. Millennials are much less likely than their elders to indicate a religious preference, and presumably the nearly one-third of millennials without a religious preference are unlikely to ever join a church.
But the roughly two-thirds of millennials who do express a religious preference may one day be convinced to join, perhaps as more get established in their lives, including having families, which can be an impetus to becoming a part of a faith community. Another obstacle churches face is Americans' eroding confidence in the institution of organized religion.
People from all generations use it. However, social media has so many users that businesses and nonprofits are desperate to reach them. While the right thing would be for social media to let the users choose what they want to see and from whom, the opposite is actually true. Social media algorithms have changed from a simple chronological order to what they think is most important to users.
Investing in low-cost ads and sponsored posts helps you reach people faster. Instagram is doing the exact same thing. The more a user engages with a specific user, page or group, the more often posts show up for them. User-generated content is an easy way to engage your users and have more relevant posts too. Use these church statistics to develop a new strategy. Any statistics on the disabled community and their percentage of attendance?
This seems to be a lost demographic in most churches. Jodee, the short answer is no, but we only have to look at church buildings to realize that our differently-abled sisters and brothers face incredible barriers to attending worship.
Since this is church speak, it means all of the United Methodist churches south of I, think Moline and south. We are making churches more aware of the needs of our differently-abled sisters and brothers so that they may worship with us. The barriers that they face are mostly unknown to people who have never had to use a cane, crutches or a walker. If you like I can send you a copy of our Church Accessibility Audit, just email me at the address below.
Thanks for adding to the discussion Jim, and thank you for what you do to help make it easier for everyone to worship! I am hoping to find a ten year trend on average attendance per month. If you can point me in the right direction I would be extremely appreciative. We would love to chat. Amen in Jesus Name! Your email address will not be published.
Table of contents 1. Fewer Millennials Attend Church 4. Religious Preferences By Generation 5. Christianity Holds Surprisingly Steady 6.
Rise In Outsourcing 7. Charitable Giving In A Nutshell Donations Are Actually Growing Your Members Are Online Paid Social Is A Necessity Trending Top Best Church Websites of Trending Posts. Top Best Church Websites of by magen on January 2, Comments 9. Post Author. 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. This is because questions about religious identity, belief and practice can be sensitive, and some respondents may be reluctant to admit to interviewers that they are not religious.
In the U. In other words, respondents may more honestly report low levels of religiosity in self-administered surveys, when no interviewer is present. When prompted by a survey question to report how often they attend religious services, respondents who say they attend every week may be indicating that they see themselves as the kind of people who regularly go to services, rather than that they never miss a week of church.
For a discussion of differences between self-reported attendance and actual attendance rates, see Brenner, Philip S. Overreporting of Church Attendance in the U. Though this body of research suggests that attendance measures from surveys may not necessarily be the best gauge of the share of people who attend services in any given week, knowing whether respondents think of themselves as regular churchgoers is nevertheless very important because this measure of religious commitment often is correlated with other religious beliefs and practices, as well as with social and political attitudes.
In addition to the overreporting of church attendance that arises from asking respondents directly about how often they attend religious services, readers should bear in mind that telephone opinion surveys can produce overestimates of religious attendance due to high rates of nonresponse.
Those estimates were similar to the figures shown in this analysis. Table of Contents In U.
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