Voting with their feet

I like to keep up-to-date with church attendance statistics.

We all have our experiences and impressions, but good statistics help us understand the bigger picture. The statistics on church attendance in western countries aren’t always encouraging, but if we care about God’s church and want to see his kingdom grow, facing up to social and spiritual trends is important.

So here’s the picture in 2025 plus some lessons we can learn.

(I have limited myself to the English speaking countries of Australia, USA and UK. I’m guessing New Zealand and Canada would be experiencing similar trends.)

Australia, 2025
USA, 2025
UK, 2025

Note: Available statistics can vary because different measurements are used, e.g. monthly or weekly attendance (weekly may only be 50%-80% of monthly), self reported or from occasional counts in services (counts are lower and more reliable), plus different sampling methodologies. I have tried to find the most consistent and reliable figures.

Australia, 2025

Australia has never been a strong church-going nation, even though it has been nominally Christian since white settlement.

Christian identification and church attendance have been declining since 1950 due to the rise in non-belief and those who see themselves as “spiritual but not religious”, and the growth through immigration of Middle Eastern and Asian religions. In 2016, only 7% of Aussies attended church weekly, while somewhere between 9% and 16% attended at least monthly.

But in the 8 years since then, the picture has become more complicated. Firstly Covid caused in-person services to cease for a while, then there was a partial recovery. Overall, it seems that church attendances have at least stabilised and have perhaps risen slightly over that time, but with great variability depending on denomination.

Among the major church groupings, less that 10% of nominal Catholics and Anglicans attend church, so it is no surprise that their attendances have declined in percentage terms. By contrast virtually 100% of Pentecostals attend regularly, and these churches are growing.

Some surprising (?) facts

Belief vs attendance

You’d expect there to be a reasonable correlation between belief and attendance. But two contrary factors challenge this.

Christian belief has continued to decline. In 2020/21 53% of Australians held a religious belief, with 44% of these being Christian. However church attendance is no longer dropping at the same rate, and may have stabilised or perhaps even rising. It seems that those losing their religion are much more likely to be non attenders.
On the other hand there is a growth in those who continue to live and believe as Christians but no longer attend church (see more below).

More younger people

For many years, church attendance and Christian belief have declined with each new generation. But while belief continues to decline overall, there are signs that younger generations (aged 18-34) are more open to Christian belief. A higher percentage of this group attend church than those aged 65 and over.

Men vs women

For decades Christian belief and church attendance have been higher among women than men. But apparently that too is changing. Overall, 60% of church attendees and only 40% men, but among those aged 28 and under:

Young men (39%) are more likely to identify as Christian than young women (28%), a remarkable change.
Young women are more likely than men to identify as “spiritual”.
Young men and women attend church at similar rates even though more young men have Christian belief..

Researchers suggest that the main reason for this change has been what women see as harmful patriarchal attitudes in churches which lead to abusive use of power and fewer opportunities for women.

Two examples

The Sydney Diocese of the Anglican church

This is, along with the Catholics and Pentecostals, one of the three largest Christian groupings in Sydney, a city of more than 5 million people. It is conservative both doctrinally and socially (a few years back it spent $1m to oppose same-sex marriage in a Government survey).

While it looks prosperous and its Bible college is full, church attendances are dropping, down from 1.1% of population to 0.75% in less than a decade. Other signs are declining youth numbers (down from 9-10% of congregations to 5-6% in 30 years) and declining new attendees, a sign of success in making converts (down from 12% of congregations to 5% in 20 years).

This decline is despite a bunch of Diocese-wide missions and reviews that have essentially recommended more of the same. It seems to me that there must be some lessons to be learnt from this history.

(Information for this section obtained from NCLS and Anglican Standing Committee reports.)

Alternatives

I have observed a growth in the number of (mostly younger) Christians who are “done” with conventional church. Some are just bored, finding the standard services irrelevant to their lives and faith, some believe than can relate to God outside of “church”, some find they disagree with some doctrines they find impossible to believe, some object to conservative stances on women, LGBTQI, climate change, social justice or First Nations, and some suffer from “church trauma”.

Some havesimly stopped attending church, but others are forming new churches, new groups, podcasts and communities for spiritual misfits and even holding conferences on what they dream the church could be.

I believe regular churches could learn some lessons here.

USA, 2025

Church attendance in the US has long been higher than in other countries with European heritage. But even there, Christian faith has faced some serious declines in the past few decades.

In the decade before Covid (2009-2019), the percentage of the US population identifying as Christian fell from 78% to 65%, while the religiously unafiliated rose from 16% to 26%. In the same period, weekly church attendance fell from 30% to 23% of population while attendance at least monthly (which includes the weekly numbers) fell from about 42% to 35%. One source says this meant “1.2 million walking away from church every year.”

Covid was an enormous disruption, but since 2020, attendance numbers have stabilised at about 85% of pre-Covid numbers (=20% weekly attendance, 31% at least monthly).

Some early reports suggest that 2025 may be seeing a small increase in church attendance. Religious affiliation has also stabilised at 63% vs 28% for non-affiliated Christians. (Other religions make up the difference.)

Straws in the wind

Like Australia, there have been some significant changes in the church in the US.

Disenchantment

Researchers say the drop in numbers is caused by a range of factors:

Church leadership scandals and political polarisation leads to lack of trust in church. For some, their experience can be deeply painful.
This is a growing distrust in institutions – the presidency, the Supreme Court, Congress, the media …. and the church. Perhaps for this reason, denominational churches tend to be declining while non-denominational churches are seeing some growth.
For many people, life got busy, things changed, or maybe they had health issues, and church just wasn’t important enough.
Carey Nieuwhof suggests failure to build connection and equip people for life, Christian meanness on social media and “inflamed” political discourse have been major problems. He observes that many Christians aren’t coping well with the US becoming a secular society.

Men vs women

In 2000, 47% of US women attended church regularly compared to 38% of men. In 2024, the number of women attending church has fallen dramatically to 27% while the number of men has fallen less dramatically to 30%.

Researchers suggest several reasons for the percentage of women in church almost halving:

More women than before are now single, and they tend not to find church attractive because most male attenders are married.
Sexual scandals with church leaders tends to make women feel less safe in church communities.

More younger people

Perhaps surprisingly, the attendance since Covid was strongest (30%) among those under 40 compared to 25% of those between 40 and 80. Some researchers suggest these younger adults are entering new life stages at a time which feels perilous or uncertain to them, and look to church to find connection and guidance.

Signs of hope

David Kinnaman sees hope in the greater spiritual openness of younger Americans, and believes churches willing to innovate and “meet younger explorers where they are and invite them into the grand epic of following Jesus as the answer to their spiritual quest” have great opportunities.

He suggests churches need to anchor people in a healing community, mobilise their giftedness, train them to flourish in the real world and offer a grace-filled way of life.

But there are other voices, mostly from smaller Christian churches, groups and individuals, that believe the US church has lost connection with Jesus and his values. They are helping those who are listening to focus on restoring and embracing Jesus’ values of love, justice, care for the marginalised, forgiveness, non-violence and serving. They see these as imperatives in following Jesus’ commands to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22:39) and to be a servant (Mark 9:35).

UK, 2025

The UK is one of the least religious countries in Europe. Church attendance as a percentage of population has been falling for years, down from 11.8% in 1980 to 4.5% in 2025. In 2016 only 28% of Britons believed in God or a higher power, although another 20% believed in “some kind of spiritual power”. (Some sources give higher rates of belief – see below.)

There are differences between the four constituent countries of the UK, with England having the lowest level of church membership, but the decline is fastest in Wales and Scotland.

Despair and hope

On the negative side, the decline in church attendance in Welsh and Scottish churches has led to the prediction that several Scottish & Welsh denominations will all but die within 20 years. Even the large Catholic and Church of England denominations are in such decline that, if present trends continue, they will be very small within 40 years.

Most denominations are in decline (anything from 2% to 6% annual decline), but several Pentecostal denominations are growing significantly (2% to 6% annually).

So while 1900 churches closed over the period 2015 to 2020, 880 new churches opened in the same period. Notable among these are 184 new Church of England congregations planted by the HTB network.

Reasons for decline

Several reasons have been given for this decline.

During and since Covid, it seems that some lower levels of attendance occurred simply because some churches closed online services too quickly, and cut in-person services. But I can’t help feeling declining attendances caused services to be cut as much as the other way round.
Another reviewer suggests major causes of decline are cultural irrelevance and resistance to change, seen in attitudes to women and LGBTQI people, scandals and abuse, and lack of community engagement. I agree with him, but I can’t help feeling he brings those assumptions to his review rather than offering data in support.
UK has a relatively low level of belief in God (49% in 2022) compared to other countries, and many of these believers would not be Christians. 57% of Britons say God isn’t relevant to their lives. Decline in belief must be a major factor in church decline.

Glimmers of light

The amazing growth of the HTB network, establish 184 thriving and mostly young congregations in about 15 years provides a model of hope for the UK. These churches are mildly charismatic, have a balance of lively worship, positive training and reinforcement and strong social welfare activities.
While several denominations are in almost terminal decline in Scotland, 110 mostly independent and innovative churches were established in Glasgow alone in the period 2000-2016. Meanwhile the Church of Scotland is looking forward hopefully, with many churches establishing innovative groups such as Messy Church, Café Church, Youth Church, Older People’s Church and Forest Church.

Ways forward

Some patterns and ideas emerge from this review that lead to possible ways forward for churches.

Keeping on doing the same thing isn’t an option for most churches. Some people say only God can convert people, so all churches need to do is stay faithful. But surely “faithful” means listening to the Holy Spirit and adapting our methods to suit the situation, just as Paul did (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)? Christians and churches shouldn’t be afraid of change.
Attitudes to women, LGBTQI people, to social issues and politics, are major sources of negative feelings towards the church. Instead of holding the traditional and/or conservative line on these matters, surely churches should be praying for the Spirit’s insights into ways to approach these issues and these people better. Churches need to learn to be more non-judgmental, loving and accepting. Reaching out and addressing past mistakes would help reset church-community relations.
Good connection and relationships, vibrant faith, contemporary language, changed lives, addressing life-related issues, avoiding hypocrisy and genuinely welcoming people without judgment, would all hopefully make non-attendees feel there was something in church for them. We need to be loving communities that show the love and justice of God before we can expect people to want to join us.
New and different forms are needed that better provide for people’s needs and better prepare them for life as a follower of Jesus.

I fear that if churches don’t learn lessons too many people will keep voting with their feet and walking away. But many people have aspirations and hopes for something more than a material life, and the church can offer them a positive meaningful life.

Main graphic: wal_172619 from Pixabay. Second graphic: HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay. Third graphic: Bob Price (Pexels). Bottom graphic: Matheus Bertelli (Pexels).

Let's overturn these tables