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Friday, April 19th, 2019

U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades

Author:     JEFFREY M. JONES
Source:     The Gallup Organization
Publication Date:     APRIL 18, 2019
 Link: U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades
Stephan:   One of the most important social trends in the U.S. is the declining interest in organized religion. I do not take this to be a diminution in spirituality, because it is possible to be a deeply spiritual person and yet have no involvement with any religion. Rather I see this as a shift away from the middle Bronze Age Abrahamic worldview that has brought us to the social crises of climate change, racism, and gender equality we now face.
  • Half of Americans are church members, down from 70% in 1999
  • Most of the decline attributable to increase in percentage with no religion
  • Membership has fallen nine points among those who are religious

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Christian and Jewish Americans prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, respectively, Gallup finds the percentage of Americans who report belonging to a church, synagogue or mosque at an all-time low, averaging 50% in 2018.

U.S. church membership was 70% or higher from 1937 through 1976, falling modestly to an average of 68% in the 1970s through the 1990s. The past 20 years have seen an acceleration in the drop-off, with a 20-percentage-point decline since 1999 and more than half of that change occurring since the start of the current decade.

Line graph. The percentage of U.S. adults who are members of churches fell from 70% in 1999 to 50% in 2018.

The decline in church membership is consistent with larger societal trends in declining church attendance and an increasing proportion of Americans with no religious preference.

This article compares church membership […]

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2 Comments

  1. Rev. Dean on Friday, April 19, 2019 at 9:14 am

    People are seeing the malfeasance in the church and that influences their decision to be religious or just be a spiritual or humanistic person with no help from a church. Such people might just become meditators to reach out to God in their own personal way.

  2. Tom Nesser on Friday, April 19, 2019 at 2:05 pm

    It seems there has been a dramatic “coarsening” in our society that I’ve observed over my 60+ years of life. Is it because of rampant growth in drug and alcohol abuse? Does this correlate with the decline in church membership, Is this the result of LBJ’s great society (which has removed the father from poor families and replaced him with government assistance payments)? Is it something else? Respect and decency between people , especially of differing opinion are becoming a thing if the past. I was told when I was young to keep religious and political views to yourself. In hind site and as I look around me today, this was very good advise indeed.