5% of the US Population Goes to Church

[jbrob]

The most religious, and religiously diverse, places in America

This week, we mine the U.S. Religious Census, a decennial count of America’s faithful, for insights into the geography of religious devotion. We also compare people’s claims on church attendance to their actual behavior.

Analysis by Adrián Blanco, Lenny Bronner and Andrew Van Dam
June 28, 2024

wapo.st/3VPcxbC

[jbrob]

While conducting covid-related research, Pope acquired (anonymous) cellphone tracking data showing the movements of 2.1 million Americans in the 47 weeks before the coronavirus storm hit. For a new working paper, Pope and a squad of students spent hundreds of hours categorizing 392,000 U.S. worship sites by religion, then used the anonymous phone data to determine how often people visited them.

When stupendous survey outfits such as Pew or Gallup ask about church attendance, about 21 to 24 percent of Americans say they go at least once a week. But everyone we spoke with agreed that folks tend to exaggerate their physical dedication to devotion. Pope’s work puts regular churchgoers in America, even before the pandemic’s shift to remote worship, at as little as 5 percent of the population.

[jbrob]

Another data point.


Cone announces plans to purchase Centenary United Methodist Church property

Cone Health has recently announced that they have entered into a contract to purchase the property at 2300 W. Friendly Ave after the Centenary United Methodist Church decided to sell the building.

Pastor of the church Rev. Kelly Groce cited an aging congregation and declining attendance as the driving factor in the church selling the building in a letter to neighboring properties.

"Our weekly attendance is not what it used to be, but more importantly, it is not what it needs to be to support our upkeep and maintenance," Groce said. "We therefore made the long, careful, and prayerful decision to seek a merger with another congregation and to leave this site that we have loved and enjoyed for so long."

greensboro.com/news/local/business/cone-health-centenary-united-methodist-church-sale-rev-kelly-groce/article_560ab488-4b85-11ef-aea7-1b7513fecb36.html#tracking-source=home-top-story