Phone Data Contradicts Church Attendance Surveys

From a new study on church attendance:

To date, most studies on religion have relied on surveys where respondents self-report their worship, potentially limiting the reliability of results. In this paper, the author uses anonymized location data from smartphones to provide a descriptive analysis of religious worship attendance in the United States.

Seventy-three percent of people step into a religious place of worship at least once during the year on the primary day of worship (e.g. Sundays for most Christian churches). However, only 5% of Americans attend services “weekly,” far fewer than the roughly 22% who report they do so in surveys.

Approximately 45 million Americans attend worship services in a typical week. There is limited week-to-week variation/seasonality in attendance, with holidays being the major exceptions.

Read the full article.

This study uses anonymized location data from smartphones to analyze religious worship attendance in the United States.

It found that only 5% of Americans attend services “weekly,” far fewer than the roughly 22% who report they do so in surveys.https://t.co/hXRuhD3Wip

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