The percentage of Americans who say they have attended religious services in the last month has leveled off as more churches and houses of worship have lifted various COVID-19 meeting restrictions and safety precautions.
Pew released a report last week looking into the percentage of Americans that have returned to in-person worship now that gathering restrictions were being lifted across the country and more churches are again holding in-person worship services.
In July 2020, a few months after the pandemic lockdowns began 13% of U.S. adults said they attended religious services in person the previous month.
In March 2021, Pew reported that the figure had increased by 4 percentage points. And in September 2021, the share of adults who said they attended a religious service in the past month rose to 26%.
But in March 2022, the share of Americans who attended religious services in person in the previous month was 27% — only 1 percentage point higher than last September.
Sam Rainer, president of Church Answers and pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church in Florida, told The Christian Post “If you are holding your own with attendance right now, if you are stable in attendance, I view that as a victory because it’s been harder to draw new people in during this season.”