First Time Ever, U.S. Church Membership Drops Below 50%

The percentage of Americans who are members of a house of worship has fallen below 50% for the first time ever, according to a Gallup poll from 2020.

This is the first time since Gallup has asked Americans about their church affiliation that less than half of the respondents said they belong to a church, mosque, or synagogue.

When Gallup first began asking people in 1937, “Do you happen to be a member of a church, synagogue or mosque,” 73% of respondents said “yes.” Now, some eight decades later, that number is down to 47%.

Church membership in the United States has been consistently declining since 1999, when 70% of Gallup poll respondents said they belonged to a house of worship.

Gallup also states that members of older generations are more likely to belong to houses of worship. For instance, 58% of baby boomers belong to a church while only 36% of millennials say the same.

There are two reasons for the recent decline in church membership: a growing proportion of Americans who have no religious preference; and a decrease in church membership among those who do express some form of religious preference.

From 1998 to 2000, only 8% of Americans were unaffiliated with a religion. From 2018 to 2020, the number of religiously unaffiliated jumped to 21%.

Among Americans who do have a religious preference, church membership is also declining. From 1998 to 2000, 73% of Americans who had a religious affiliation also belonged to a house of worship. That number fell to 60% between 2018 and 2020.

This trend can be seen in the church membership habits of self-identified evangelicals. As Christian researcher and pastor Ryan Burge explains, back in 2008, 16.1% of self-identified evangelicals claimed to never or seldom attend church. Now in 2020, 1 out of every 4 evangelicals (26.7%) claim to rarely attend church service.

Moreover, two-out-of-five evangelicals (40%) go to church only one time a year or less.

Of course, some of the decline in church, synagogue, and mosque membership could be related to the social distancing requirements that are widespread in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The question now is whether people will return to church once the pandemic is over.

Despite the decline in the percentage of Americans who belong to a house of worship, the U.S. is still a religious nation overall, as Gallup shows that more than seven-in-ten people are still affiliated with a religion.