A NEW study suggests that church life in the United States stayed “remarkably stable” during the pandemic, despite the closure of places of worship: one survey suggests that Christians attend in person or online as often now as in 2019.
While attendance figures in the UK fell steeply, eight in ten of the people surveyed in the US told researchers that they attended in person as often as they did before 2020, or watched services online.
The Pew Research Center survey of 9593 American adults, carried out in October 2024, found that a small net decrease in in-person attendance in 2020-24 had been offset by increased attendance online.
The Church of England’s figures for 2024 show that total attendance is still lower than before the Covid lockdowns, although it has recovered, year on year. The Pew study is, however, based on a survey rather than service registers.
In the US, 31 per cent of respondents told researchers that they attended services in person as often as before the pandemic. Seven per cent said that they went more often, and 13 per cent, less. But 13 per cent said that they now watched online services more than they had in 2019.
The Pew report said: “The pandemic did not shake American religion: the share participating in services in some way has been steady, and the share who say Covid-19 had a big impact on their spiritual life is small.
“Together, these survey findings paint a picture of remarkable stability in U.S. religious life during a time of widespread upheaval in how houses of worship operate and despite a decades-long decline in religious affiliation and participation.”
As in the UK, most churches and houses of worship in the US closed for services during lockdowns. In a survey of 10,441 adults in July 2020, Pew found that only six per cent of respondents in the US said that their place of worship was open and holding services. Even a year and a half later, fewer than half of the regular worshippers said that services had returned to normal.
But, despite the disruption, most Americans said that their religious and spiritual lives had not changed because of the pandemic. Ten per cent said that Covid had had a big impact on their religious life, but about one third of those impacted said that the effect had been positive, not negative.
The study analysed responses from different Christian communities, and found that Black, Hispanic, and African Americans were more likely than white Americans to say that their religious lives were impacted by Covid. Black Protestants were more likely to say that the pandemic had a “mostly positive” impact, compared with white Catholics, who were more likely to say that it was negative.
The number of the young adults — under-30s — who said that they attended services was up by eight per cent from July 2020, but researchers say that this figure had fluctuated in the past four years. The overall trend across all demographics had stayed remarkably stable, they reported: in July 2020, 41 per cent said that they had taken part in an online or in-person worship service that month, compared with 43 per cent in October 2024, the latest figures available.
One million Americans died from Covid.
The study also looked at how the pandemic shaped attitudes to politics, technology, and work. Nearly three-quarters — 72 per cent — of the respondents said that the period did more to drive the country apart than bring it together. Many said that the risks of the disease were exaggerated by the media.