The following are current church surveys and statistics to help provide you with a glimpse of the church under the hood… and the overwhelming need for prayer and to discuss these issues openly.
Church revenue statistics of 2022 show that only 5% of regular churchgoers tithe.
Enterprise Apps Today, September 5, 2022
Study done on Evangelicals or born-again Christians believe the Bible is true
- 51% view the Bible as “the inspired word of God”
- 40% believe the Bible as “the actual word of God”
- In 2017 24% of general American adults say the Bible is the literal word of God, now the percentage went down to 20%
- 29% of Americans say the Bible is a compilation of “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man”
- 30% of Protestants and 15% of Catholics believe the Bible is the word of God
- About 2/3 of Catholics view the Bible as the inspired word of God.
The Christian Post, July 10, 2022
Americans opinion on Dobbs decision to reverse Roe v. Wade: polls
- 56% say they do not approve Dobbs decision
- 40% support the ruling
- 28% of those surveyed strongly support the ruling
- 12% support it
- 45% strongly oppose it
- 11% oppose Dobbs
- 55% who were surveyed identified as mostly supporting abortion rights
- 36% identified as mostly opposing abortion rights
The Christian Post, June 29, 2022
Poll from Gallup on Americans view of the U.S. moral value
- 50% say moral values are poor
- 37% say fair
- Only 1% think excellent
- 12% say good
- 78% think they are getting worse, and 18% think they are getting better
Survey shows 77% of US Catholic church leaders say communion should be allowed to LGBTQ+ people
New Way Ministry, June 14, 2022
From the overall population 65% of young adult men and 18% of young women say they watch porn at least once a week, according to the statistics from webroot.com
Colorado Springs Gazette, June 12, 2022
Why churches aren’t using their unused church venues found that about 85% of local congregations continues to decline.
Christianity Today, June 10, 2022
Survey shows what percentage of pastors have a biblical worldview
- 51% of US pastors have a biblical worldview
- Only 37% of Christian pastors have a biblical worldview and preach it to their congregation
- 57% of nondenominational and independent pastors held a biblical worldview
- 51% of those pastors have a biblical worldview in their every day lives
- 48% of pastors of Baptist churches
- 78% of Southern Baptists pastors
- 37% of Charismatic or Pentecostal church pastors
- 32% of Protestant churches
- 9% of pastors leading traditionally black churches
- 6% of Catholic priests
The Christian Post, May 29, 2022
Stats from General Conference Office of Archives, trying to increase devotions within family and personal life
- 37% of SDA around the world have morning and/or evening devotions with their family
- 52% of SDA members have daily personal devotionals
Adventist Review, April 27, 2022
Presbyterian church membership declines
- In 2021 their annual statistics showed that they lost 51,584 members
- 4.1 percent rate of decline and total membership of just over 1.19 million members last year, compared to 1.48 million in 2016
- In 2016 they had around 1.5 million members. Now with a 4.1% decline, they have 1.19 million members
The Roys Report, April 27, 2022
Report on how many Americans stopped reading the bible on a regular basis during Covid
- The data from the American Bible Society’s yearly State of the Bible report said about 26 million people had mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible just in the last year
- In 2021, about 50% of Americans said that they read the Bible on their own at least 3-4 times per year, staying pretty steady since 2011
- In 2022 only 39% say they read the Bible numerous times a year or more, being the steepest decline on their record
- Before the pandemic 14% of Americans read the Bible daily, now only 10% do
- Most churches stayed open during the pandemic as well as the option to do online, and about 3% were not meeting at all
- Pew Research Center found out that roughly 1/3 of regular churchgoers have not gone back to church
- Some have stuck to only online, while the others have stopped going completely
Christianity Today, April 20, 2022
Statistics of American youth losing religion in the 1990’s
- 5% of the population in the early 1970s were religiously unaffiliated to about 30% of adults in 2022
- In 1991 87% of young adults stated that their faith was Christian, mainly Protestant and Catholic, with only 8% of this group saying that they are religiously unaffiliate
- In 1998 the young adults who said they were Christians dropped to 73%, and the percentage who answered unaffiliated went up to to 20%
The Roys Report, April 14, 2022
Survey from the American Bible Society finds an ‘unprecedented drop’ in Bible reading
They surveyed 2,598 American adults in January 2022 and asked them questions about their Bible use and their thoughts on its role in society
- In 2014 after reaching a high of 53%, the share of Bible users stayed between 48% and 51%
- 50% of Americans were Bible users in 2021
- In 2022, Bible users dropped by 11%, only 39% of the adult population, the lowest in more than a decade
- The figure suggests that the number of Bible users dropped from 128 million in 2021 to 103 million in 2022
- Outside of a church setting, those who use their Bible at least 3-4 times a year on their own
- 10% use the Bible daily, 4% use it 4-6 times a week, 7% consult it 2-3 times a week, 5% read the Bible once a week, and 7% read it once a month
- 60% use the Bible less than 3-4 times a year, 40% never read the Bible on their own, while 12% read it less than once a year, and 8% look at it 1-2 times a year
- 78% stated that their Bible reading “stayed the same” over the year
- 13% said there was an increase in their Bible reading with the remaining 10% saw a decrease in their Bible reading
- 45% said they thought America would be “worse off” without the Bible
- In 2021 54% who took the survey said America would be “worse off” without the Bible
- 41% said the US would be “about the same” without the Bible
- An increase from 2021 with 33% who said so
The Christian Post, April 7, 2022
Report: Americans leaving the church and don’t see religion necessary
- Generation Z is now the least religious generation with 34% of them identifying as religiously unaffiliated
- 29% of millennials identify as religiously unaffiliated
- 25% of generation X identify as religiously unaffiliated
- 18% of baby boomers and 9% of the silent generation identify as religiously unaffiliated
- 18% of the cohort identified as either atheist or agnostic
- 4% of the silent generation identify as atheist or agnostic
- 65% of Americans report having no childhood religious traditions and are still unaffiliated as adults
- In 2014, only 53% of Americans who were raised without a formal religious tradition, stayed secular as an adult
- In 2007, that number was 46%
- Gallup found that peoples trust and confidence in their religion has decreased drastically over the past two decades
- In 2001 60% reported feeling confident
- In 2021, only 37% of the public reported having confidence in their religion
- 35% of Americans believe religion causes more harm than good
- 69% say religion causes problems more than it provides solutions
- 63% of Americans who were always religiously unaffiliated say religion causes more problems in society than it solves
- More than 50% of Americans say there are benefits to raising their children religious, but 82% of the religiously unaffiliated disagree
- 40% of Gen Z see raising children with religion as a good thing
The Christian Post, March 24, 2022
Barna’s research on Millennials in America
- Almost one-half of young adults prefer socialism to capitalism
- 9 of 10 are syncretists, picking a mixture of beliefs from different religions so as not to appear “intolerant”
- Being “born again” doesn’t result from repentance and faith in Christ’s sacrificial, substitutionary death and Resurrection but refers to being a good person, doing good deeds to merit one’s salvation
- Only 28% believe the Bible is the Word of God
- Majority reject the concept of an all-knowing, all-powerful Creator and do not accept the biblical/historical view of Scripture, sin and salvation
- 2 out of 3 millennials believe they are “Christians,” yet their responses indicate they are not true disciples following Jesus as Lord
- 3 out of 4 believe all religions are of equal value
- 56% reject the existence of absolute truth
- 4% of millennials hold to a biblical worldview regarding God, life and morality
- Only one in four millennials believe they can trust Christian pastors
- A high percentage identify themselves as “donts,” meaning they don’t know or even care if God exists
Charisma News, February 24, 2022
A shocking poll on UK people who are ok with pornography
- Savanta ComRes poll of 2,087
- 34% of respondents believe porn is an acceptable part of modern society
- 19% would be willing to work in the pornography industry if they were paid enough or guaranteed a safe working environment
- 51% would be concerned finding a family member on a pornography site
- A study commissioned by the Naked Truth Project on ages 18-34 the study found that 18-34 were 32% more likely to consider a career in pornography than those 55 years and over (8%)
- Across the UK, 49% of adults visited a porn site or app in a single month in 2020
- In the USA, 93% of pastors said pornography is a bigger issue than ever before in their congregations, but only 7% of those said their church had a program to address it
- According to Premier Christian News 44% of boys aged 11 to 16 were watching porn to get ideas of what to try in sexual relationships
The Christian Post, September 20, 2021
Southern Baptists Church loses thousands of members over the past years
- From 2018-2019 they lost 287,655 members
- In 2020 their membership was 50% higher losing 435,632, which was due to the pandemic
- In 2006 SBC had 16.3 million members, since then, the denomination has declined by nearly 2 million
- From a recent study by the Pew Research Center, they reported that only 65% of Americans identify as Christian
