Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 28, 2023 / 07:00 am
Although church attendance in the United States saw a slight uptick in 2023, fewer Americans are going to church than they did before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, according to a Gallup poll released June 26.
Gallup surveyed more than 1,000 Americans between May 1 and May 24, asking them whether they had attended church, synagogue, mosque, or temple within the last seven days. The results found that only 31% of respondents said they had. About 84% of worshippers were attending in person, but about 16% were still attending remotely.
The 31% attendance rate was the highest found by the pollsters since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 survey found that only 30% of respondents attended a service within the week they were polled, which dropped to 29% in 2021 and rose again to 30% in 2022.
Despite the slight uptick, the poll found that attendance was still three percentage points lower than the 34% attendance rate found in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began. However, the attendance was only one percentage point lower than the 32% rate found by pollsters in 2018, which was, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lowest-ever attendance rating found by pollsters.