Church-Going Among U.S. Catholics Slides to Tie Protestants

Gallup ^ | April 9, 2009 | Lydia Saad

[Alex Murphy]

PRINCETON, NJ -- According to Gallup Poll trends on church attendance among American Christians, weekly attendance among Protestants has been fairly steady over the past six decades, averaging 42% in 1955 versus 45% in the middle of the current decade. However, attendance among Roman Catholics dropped from 75% to 45% over the same period.

Most of the decline in church attendance among American Catholics occurred in the earlier decades, between 1955 and 1975; however, it continued at a rate of four percentage points a decade through the mid-1990s, and church attendance has since leveled off at 45%.

The Gallup Poll's rich archives of religious preference and church attendance data have been mined in time to provide a detailed picture of church attendance trends among U.S. Christians heading into Easter Sunday. Multiple surveys were combined for each decade starting with the 1950s, using Gallup religion surveys conducted closest to the middle of the decade. This provides ample sample size to examine the church attendance patterns of Protestants and Catholics, and of various age categories within those religious groups.

On the basis of these 10-year snapshots of church attendance, the percentage of Catholics saying they went to church in the past week is essentially unchanged between 1995 and today. That's an extremely important finding given the upheaval in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church caused by the sexual abuse scandals that erupted earlier this decade. Gallup polling in 2002 and 2003 found a decline in the percentages of Catholics saying they had attended church in the past week; however, attendance rebounded by the end of 2003 and has since remained on par with its pre-scandal level of about 45%.

Young Catholics Drop Out of Church by the 1970s

Beyond the divergent attendance trends of Protestants and Catholics, the historical

[Alex Murphy]

...it is clear that U.S. Catholics' once-nearly uniform obedience to their church's requirement of weekly mass attendance has faded, and Catholics are now no different from Protestants in their likelihood to attend church. This has occurred among Catholics of all age categories, but is most pronounced among those under 60. The good news for the Catholic Church is that the drop in attendance seems to have slowed or abated altogether in the last decade, spanning a most difficult period for the church around 2002, when attendance did suffer temporarily.

U.S. Protestant church attendance has also been steady over the past decade, but is actually higher now than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, in part the result of a resurgence of regular attendance among young adults.

[mrmeangenes]

Just a brief,cautionary note :

[kc8ukw]

Other surveys have shown that statistically “Catholics” tend to agree with their church’s teaching much less than Protestants, so what is really surprising is that just as many still attend church. (I don’t know why that is.)

But the fact that half of “Christians” aren’t attending church is bad news all around!

[chuck_the_tv_out]

in other news, 100s of 1000s of mexicans have entered America, and are being included in this data. that is all.

[SumProVita]

Simple case of persons buying into relativistic philosophy. Those “Catholics” who ‘take exception’ to selected Church Teachings are the ones who do not attend Mass regularly.

Cafeteria Catholics..... (CINO’s)

[all the best]

Ironically, as churches water down their teachings so as to attract and hold adherents the more attendance declines. If a church or denomination has no standards, no absolutes, what’s the point. Why in the world would anybody give up a Sunday morning and a portion of their hard-earned money for nothing in particular. May as well lounge around the house or go out to breakfast.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

Just another Holy Week religion bashing article by the MSM.

[chuckles]

I agree with your statement. In other threads I have been complaining about the Catholic Church not disciplining Pelosi, Kennedy, Biden, and Kerry. It just makes the Church seem like nothing, instead of a guiding light in life.

People need to feel the church stands for something. Right now, it just seems like a wishy washy dogma that just wants money.

Can't we all just get along? ( while millions of babies are murdered and homo's pork each other in church.)

[Mad Dawg]

Judges 7:1-7

We’re being winnowed so that when victory comes we’ll know it is the Lord’s victory.

Isaiah 12:2

Bring it on!

[Sans-Culotte]

Ironically, as churches water down their teachings so as to attract and hold adherents the more attendance declines. If a church or denomination has no standards, no absolutes, what’s the point. Why in the world would anybody give up a Sunday morning and a portion of their hard-earned money for nothing in particular. May as well lounge around the house or go out to breakfast.

You've hit the nail on the head. I (Protestant) seldom go any more. Churches that get away from preaching Christ Crucified for our undeserved salvation don't have much to say to me.

[chase19]

Yes, the aim is to demoralize. I notice it’s usually Gallup who does these polls. They sure screwed up the election polls in 2000, 2004 and 2008. The only polls I have a little faith in are Rasmussen.