Religious attendance pre vs post pandemic

[bsjkki]

An interesting survey from the American Enterprise Institute using research conducted from NORC out of the University of Chicago. A post for those who enjoy graphs. 😆https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Faith-After-the-Pandemic.pdf

 

 

[MustardSeed]

I do wonder if the increase in idle time led to more time online, resulting in social media increase and a subsequent contagion of intolerance for religious belief. 

[bsjkki]

3 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

I do wonder if the increase in idle time led to more time online, resulting in social media increase and a subsequent contagion of intolerance for religious belief. 

Interesting theory. 

[rodheadlee]

Intolerance of crowds.

[Calm]

Looks like Latter-day Saints were least affected by change, most stayed the same and just as many increased as decreased in attendance.  Given we have a higher youth population, which are the ones most to decrease or drop out, that is not bad….

Which is weird because the first graph makes it look like it got halved.  So either an effect of the small numbers or something else is going on….they attended church the same amount, but half of us switched affiliation just doesn’t make a lot of sense given at least in the past, most who lose faith don’t join another church iirc.  My guess is the first poll was slightly over 1.5% and the second was slightly under 1.5%. Wish they showed the raw numbers.

Edited March 16 by Calm

[Hamilton Porter]

1 hour ago, Calm said:

 

I'm a hack.

Edited March 16 by Hamilton Porter

[Bernard Gui]

Did other sects resort to Zoom meetings?

[Rain]

5 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

Did other sects resort to Zoom meetings?

I know my neighbor's church had online ability long before 2020.

[SkyRock]

My ward's weekly attendance is way down versus pre-pandemic.  We had a full chapel, full overflow, and 2 or 3 rows deep into the cultural hall.  Now we can all fit in the chapel most weeks and even then there are spaces. 

Mostly this is due to move outs.  As housing prices were soaring over the last few years, a lot of long-term members cashed out, taking their equity with them.   We have had few move in at all. 

We do have a few who stopped attending and just never came back, so we lost those who were loosely associated with the Church, but that is a rather small portion of the decline. 

[LoudmouthMormon]

I'm still running the camera every Sunday.  I wonder how LDS sacrament broadcasts are faring post pandemic.

[Duncan]

our Stake and ward split in Nov. 2021. So I can't speak to the other Stake but our building has two wards that meet there, i'd say the other ward has better attendance, ours is so hit and miss. 

[BlueDreams]

4 hours ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

I'm still running the camera every Sunday.  I wonder how LDS sacrament broadcasts are faring post pandemic.

ours stopped, but the camara is still there for I assume the other wards that meet. Stake conference was live broadcasted. So in our little spot it's still at least somewhat a thing. 

 

I can't compare attendance though. Our ward was (stupidly) created in the summer of 2020. 

 

With luv,

BD

[Rain]

5 hours ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

I'm still running the camera every Sunday.  I wonder how LDS sacrament broadcasts are faring post pandemic.

I appreciate that ours is still going.  We have some people who have some bad health watching, I have watched when sick and last week in Portugal we watched our own ward as church was an hour away.

[pogi]

Is it safe to say now that all the fears and claims that temporary church closures to preserve life during the deadliest outbreak/strain when 100's of thousands were dying would permanently affect and hurt church membership/participation were overblown? 

[bsjkki]

32 minutes ago, pogi said:

Is it safe to say now that all the fears and claims that temporary church closures to preserve life during the deadliest outbreak/strain when 100's of thousands were dying would permanently affect and hurt church membership/participation were overblown? 

I’m not sure. It seems to have untethered a higher percentage of young adults. Very formative years. What will the long term effects be?

[pogi]

52 minutes ago, bsjkki said:

I’m not sure. It seems to have untethered a higher percentage of young adults. Very formative years. What will the long term effects be?

Is that borne out by the data?

If I am reading this right, it look s like around maybe 7% of youth reported attending less often while 10% reported attending more often after the pandemic, with the rest reporting no change.  That is a net increase.  Out of all the religions noted in that graph, our church is the only one listed that has a net increase in regular attendance among youth after the pandemic.   Given the trend of decreased religiosity among youth even before the pandemic began, I find those numbers encouraging and feel confident that the number of youth who are attending less as a direct result of the pandemic and church closures is vanishingly low.  Some of this has to be attributed to the overall societal trend away from religiosity for youth.   

Edit:  Upon a closer look at this graph, I think the LDS section includes adults 18+.  I don't see any data specifically addressing Latter-day Saint young adult attendance, but overall, the impact on attendance looks like it had a positive influence for Latter-day Saints.   

Edited March 17 by pogi

[bsjkki]

4 hours ago, pogi said:

Is that borne out by the data?

If I am reading this right, it look s like around maybe 7% of youth reported attending less often while 10% reported attending more often after the pandemic, with the rest reporting no change.  That is a net increase.  Out of all the religions noted in that graph, our church is the only one listed that has a net increase in regular attendance among youth after the pandemic.   Given the trend of decreased religiosity among youth even before the pandemic began, I find those numbers encouraging and feel confident that the number of youth who are attending less as a direct result of the pandemic and church closures is vanishingly low.  Some of this has to be attributed to the overall societal trend away from religiosity for youth.   

Edit:  Upon a closer look at this graph, I think the LDS section includes adults 18+.  I don't see any data specifically addressing Latter-day Saint young adult attendance, but overall, the impact on attendance looks like it had a positive influence for Latter-day Saints.   

I was referencing all churches and not just ours. 

[bsjkki]

Another interesting graph. Looks like we like everyone but only Catholics have a positive view of us. (Can’t find the graph source…it’s being discussed on Twitter.)

 

[Calm]

2 hours ago, bsjkki said:

Another interesting graph. Looks like we like everyone but only Catholics have a positive view of us. (Can’t find the graph source…it’s being discussed on Twitter.)

 

I am so fogged tonight…No fear posted this in In The News

 

Edited March 18 by Calm

[bsjkki]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

I am so fogged tonight…No fear posted this in In The News

 

Thanks, I had missed it.

[bluebell]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:13 PM, SkyRock said:

My ward's weekly attendance is way down versus pre-pandemic.  We had a full chapel, full overflow, and 2 or 3 rows deep into the cultural hall.  Now we can all fit in the chapel most weeks and even then there are spaces. 

Mostly this is due to move outs.  As housing prices were soaring over the last few years, a lot of long-term members cashed out, taking their equity with them.   We have had few move in at all. 

We do have a few who stopped attending and just never came back, so we lost those who were loosely associated with the Church, but that is a rather small portion of the decline. 

This has happened in my ward. We’ve lost over 8 active families (with kids) in my ward since 2019 and though every house sold quickly none of the buyers have been members/active.

That’s a lot of members that haven’t been replaced in the pews.