Graphs About Religion: How Childhood Church Attendance Shapes Adult Attendance

Adapted from Ryan Burge’s Graphs About Religion

Does how often you attend Mass as a child impact how often you attend as an adult? According to the 2023-24 Pew Religious Landscape Study, it does.

The Pew study asked people how often they went when they were children and then their frequency of attendance as adults. The graph below (an alluvial diagram, if you’re interested in the technical term) presents and interesting breakdown of the data:

Notice that the “flows” in the diagram move predominantly downward. That means that the average person is going to church less today than when he or she was a child. Among those who attended more than once a week as children, only about half were still in the highest attendance frequency as adults.

The “weekly” attendance group is scattered. Their church attendance as adults is all over the board. A child who attended weekly is nearly as likely to never attend as an adult as they are to still be in the pew every week. That’s a remarkable statement about how much changes between childhood and adulthood.

In contrast, upward movement in attendance is so incredibly rare. Look how small the bands are that are moving toward the top of the graph. As a rule, attendance declines from childhood to adulthood.

Can parents do anything about this? There’s no secret formula, but bringing children to church every week and raising them in a household where religion is important gives them the best shot.

For tips on creating a culture of faith at home, head over to firstwitnesses.org