Three in 10 Americans, but 67% of Mormons, attend church regularly. Most religious groups show declines in attendance over the past two decades.

Three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services regularly, led by Mormons at 67%

As Americans observe Ramadan and prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, the percentage of adults who report regularly attending religious services remains low. Three in 10 Americans say they attend religious services every week (21%) or almost every week (9%), while 11% report attending about once a month and 56% seldom (25%) or never (31%) attend.

Among major U.S. religious groups, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also widely known as the Mormon Church, are the most observant, with two-thirds attending church weekly or nearly weekly. Protestants (including nondenominational Christians) rank second, with 44% attending services regularly, followed by Muslims (38%) and Catholics (33%).

Majorities of Jewish, Orthodox, Buddhist and Hindu Americans say they seldom or never attend religious services.

    • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
      39·
      9 months ago

      There have been a lot of community groups that have dwindled in popularity as work hours and commute times increased just to cover the cost of living. Rotary clubs, Shriners, 4H, and a bunch of others were all over the place when I was a kid, but nobody from my generation kept them going because we were too busy just trying to make ends meet.

      It is hard to get something like that going again when scheduling is difficult. Plus finding out on social media that other members have horrible opinions they never brought up at the club doesn’t help…

        • Seleni@lemmy.world
          37·
          9 months ago

          Tin-foil hat time: are religious groups subtly pushing this to try and make churches the only third spaces available to people?

          • Anise (they/she)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            13·
            9 months ago

            It’s just capitalism. Longer work hours. So-called “news” agencies that profit off of fearmongering and division make us mistrust our neighbors and strangers. Streaming, TV, and gaming companies make money from us spending time at home looking at a screen. Our modern economy forces many people to leave their he towns to find employment. No support network for parents so parents become incredibly isolated and burnt out by having to do everything themselves whereas preindustrial people had a whole tribe to raise the youth.

    • lettruthout@lemmy.worldEnglish
      151·
      9 months ago

      I too wish we could recapture some of the positive aspects for community building without the dogma. Maybe it takes dogma to trigger the bonding of the tribe? Something about shared viewpoint/perspective of the world that speaks to our ancient instincts? I dunno.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        8·
        9 months ago

        There are completely secular community centers in many municipalities. But most of the ones I’ve been to are generally empty.

        • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
          6·
          9 months ago

          The thing with third-places is that you need something to do. Even if its getting a pint with friends at a regular time, pick-up games of some flavor of sportsball, or, throwing dice at nerds over little toy armies, you have to plan something.

          As much as I dont want to give religion any credit… They got that part right. The part that I take issue with is how they keep people coming back, fear of being thrown out of the community.

          Community centers like what your describing require coordinators or someone to plan things, and they dont exactly get the same benifits that religous organizations do.

    • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      9 months ago

      Part of the problem though is that out-group exclusion is baked in, and if you wrap that up in anything important, it gets toxic even if the dogma is kinda loose. I mean, why aren’t UU churches absolutely bursting at the seams? In part, it’s because they refuse to reject anyone.

    • Gabu@lemmy.world
      52·
      9 months ago

      Other modern social structures don’t really have this assumed tribal acceptance feature.

      Citizenship. You’re literally a citizen of the entire country.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      9 months ago

      I was raised Lutheran, I went to Sunday School pretty much every Sunday for about 15 years, and church at least once or twice a month. I never believed in any of it but I liked a lot of the people I met in my youth group, some of them didn’t even live in my city or go to my school so that was the only time I got to see them. We went on trips all over the east coast US.

      I stopped going when I was 19 and moved away for college. I lost touch with most of those people, which kinda sucks. I’m 38 now and used to go to church with my mom on the “big” holidays, but since I’ve been living in another state the past 5 years, my brother goes with her. I’m actually leaving tomorrow to go home for Easter for a week.

    • Jilanico@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Interesting observation. I’ve noticed men I know that go to church found relationships and marriage, but they probably would have failed in the tinder-verse. More anecdotal, not a scientific study, so take it with a grain of salt.

      • TK420@lemmy.world
        12·
        9 months ago

        Probably because they can find stupid women who believe in god and said man’s lies. Think about all of the morons at church, and you realize how much sense your statement makes. That kind of dude is gonna flop in real life dating because that’s the real world, without god.