The latest American Religious Benchmark Survey dovetailed with previous research at many points, but the pandemic’s unique impact on the young appeared to be a departure from some previous findings. CT reported in January 2022 that older and younger Americans both were more likely than middle-aged Americans to have experienced attendance drops during the pandemic.
Now senior adults apparently have come back to church even though their younger counterparts have not. According to the new survey, fewer Americans ages 65 and older changed their pre-COVID-19 church attendance patterns than any other group.
Single adults and self-identified liberals decreased their church attendance significantly as well. Before the pandemic, 30 percent of adults who had never married said they never attended religious services. That jumped to 44 percent by spring 2022. Among married adults, the percentage jumped from 22 percent to 28 percent.
While 31 percent of liberals never attended church before the pandemic, 46 percent said they didn’t attend in spring 2022. That compares with 14 percent of conservatives before the pandemic and 20 percent after.
Two-thirds of Americans reported the same level of church attendance both before and after the pandemic.
Yet declines among some groups left attendance down overall.https://t.co/FGqQr79O8o
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) January 10, 2023