According to Gallup, Church members are in the minority for the first time in at least eight decades, with just 47 percent identifying with a congregation. The number was 70 percent in 1999.
A growth in adults with no religious preference and lower rates of church membership among people who do have a religion are major trends driving the decline.
Younger generations hold the highest rates of those with no religious preference, including 31 percent of millennials and 33 percent of adult Generation Z (those born in the mid-1990s to the early 2010s).
Concurrently, among those who do affiliate with a religion, declines since the turn of the century were highest among younger generations, with the share of millennials declining from 63 percent in 2000 to 50 percent in 2020.
Pastor Larry Anderson, president of the State Directors of Evangelism, thinks churches will need to learn how to serve members who don’t attend every Sunday, and “not guilt or shame” those who no longer see attending every week as normal.
But many church experts predict the decline is just starting and are calling on the church to redouble efforts in evangelism and church planting to engage an increasingly secular culture.