Many ‘religious’ people seldom attend church

Posted: 4/28/06

Many ‘religious’ people seldom attend church

By David Barnes

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Americans are among the world’s most religious people, but a new study indicates more than one-third of all adults in the United States rarely attend any religious service.

The annual tracking survey conducted by the Barna Group found 34 percent of American adults—about 76 million people—have not attended any type of church service or activity in the past six months, excluding special events such as weddings and funerals.

The study said the majority of Americans referred to as “un-churched” had attended at least one religious service earlier in their lives.

Sixty-two percent of the unchurched described themselves as Christian, 4 percent said they are Jewish, 4 percent said they follow an Eastern religion and 24 percent said they are atheist.

By comparison, an October 2005 Gallup poll found that 66 percent of Canadians rarely attend religious services and 80 percent of Britons go unchurched.

The U.S. figures were based on a random sample of 1,003 adults collected by the Barna Group, a Christian community research firm based in Ventura, Calif.