One-third of U.S. adults say they attend religious services in person at least once a month, including 25% who report going at least once a week.
Far more Americans (67%) say they attend religious services in person a few times a year or less often. This includes about half of U.S. adults who seldom or never attend services.
In response to a separate question, the new survey finds that 23% of Americans watch religious services online or on TV at least once a month, while the majority (76%) do so a few times a year or less often.
Looking at these two questions together allows us to see, more broadly, how many Americans participate in religious services. The 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) finds that 40% of U.S. adults say they do so at least once a month, either in person or online, or both ways: 16% say they participate both ways, 17% attend only in person, and 8% watch only online or on TV.
Why we don’t compare these findings with 2014
In 2014, the last time we conducted a Religious Landscape Study, we asked a single question about religious participation – “How often do you attend religious services?” – without asking separately about in-person attendance and virtual participation. We did not begin asking respondents whether they watch religious services online/on TV until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused many congregations to restrict in-person attendance and begin livestreaming their services.
Another difference between this survey and the previous RLS is that the 2014 study was conducted entirely by telephone, while the new survey was conducted mainly online and on paper.50 Research shows that telephone surveys tend to produce higher estimates of religious attendance than web/paper surveys do.
Because of these changes, the results of the two surveys on religious service attendance are not directly comparable. What might appear to be a sharp drop from 50% of U.S. adults describing themselves as regular (at least monthly) attenders in 2014 to 33% describing themselves that way in 2023-24 does not necessarily reflect a real change in behavior. The difference between the two surveys is caused, at least in part, by changes in the ways the surveys were conducted.
That said, the Center’s telephone surveys were picking up a decline in religious attendance in the years before we switched over to online/paper surveys. The share of Americans who reported attending religious services at least monthly dropped from 54% in 2007 to 50% in the 2014 RLS and had fallen to 45% by the time the Center transitioned away from phone surveys in 2018-19.
This chapter covers the new RLS findings about:
- Attending religious services in person
- Watching religious services online or on TV
- Participating in religious services either in person or online/on TV
- Belonging to religious and nonreligious organizations
Attending religious services in person
One-third of U.S. adults say they attend religious services in person at least once or twice a month, while 18% report attending services a few times a year, and 49% seldom or never attend religious services in person.
Most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) say they attend religious services in person at least monthly (76%), as do 60% of evangelical Protestants.
Fewer Muslim Americans (46%), members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (46%), Catholics (40%), Orthodox Christians (37%), Hindus (35%) and mainline Protestants (34%) say they go to religious services once a month or more often.
Jewish adults (23%) and Buddhists (17%) are among the least likely groups of religiously affiliated Americans to say they attend religious services in person at least monthly. Among religiously unaffiliated adults – those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – very few regularly attend religious services in person.
Watching religious services online or on TV
Overall, 16% of U.S. adults say they watch religious services online or on TV at least once a week. An additional 7% say they participate virtually once or twice a month, and 11% do so a few times a year. Most Americans (65%) say they seldom or never watch religious services online or on television.
Members of the historically Black Protestant tradition are among the most likely to say they watch religious services online or on TV at least monthly.
Participating in religious services either in person or online/on TV
When we combine these two questions about attending religious services in person and watching them online or on television, we find that 40% of U.S. adults say they participate in religious services at least once a month in some way – whether in person, online or both.
Latter-day Saints (80%), evangelical Protestants (71%) and members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (66%) report the highest rates of participation in religious services, one way or another, at least monthly.
Latter-day Saints are especially likely to say they attend religious services monthly in person but do not watch services online (52%). Members of historically Black Protestant churches are especially likely to do the reverse (20%).
Participation varies somewhat across demographic groups:
- Older Americans are more likely than younger Americans to say they participate in religious services in some way – in person, online or both – at least monthly.
- A higher percentage of Black Americans than White, Hispanic or Asian Americans report that they participate at least monthly in religious services in person and/or online.
- Generally, women are more likely than men to say they participate (one way or another) in religious services.
The survey did not include enough interviews with people who belong to many other U.S. religious groups – such as Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus – to be able to subdivide them and analyze their attendance patterns by most demographic variables like sex, age, education, or race and ethnicity.
Belonging to religious and nonreligious organizations
Overall, 37% of U.S. adults say they, personally, are members of a church, synagogue, mosque or other house of worship, including 54% of Christians.
A large majority of Latter-day Saints (86%) belong to a congregation, as do 61% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of members of the historically Black Protestant tradition.
While Jewish Americans are less likely than U.S. Christians to attend religious services monthly or more often, 42% of Jewish Americans say they personally belong to a synagogue, temple or other congregation. This is on par with the share of “Jews by religion” (i.e., people who answer a question about their present religion by saying they are Jewish) who reported in our 2020 survey of Jewish Americans that they, personally, are synagogue members.
Overall, 3% of U.S. adults say they participate in organizations for atheists or nonbelievers.
