Religious Service Attendance

• Introduction
• Patterns
• Over Time
• Other Surveys

Religious Service Attendance (Demographic Patterns)

How often do you attend religious services?

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Religious Service Attendance by Gender (General Social Survey, 2004)

	MALE	FEMALE	TOTAL
NEVER	20.3% 260	13.8% 211	16.7% 471
< 1 A YEAR	8.4% 107	5.9% 91	7.0% 198
1 OR 2 YR.	15.9% 204	12.5% 192	14.1% 396
SEV.A YEAR	13.0% 167	13.3% 204	13.2% 371
1 A MONTH	6.7% 86	6.9% 105	6.8% 191
2-3 MONTH	7.9% 101	10.1% 154	9.1% 255
ABOUT WKLY	5.4% 69	6.5% 100	6.0% 169
WEEKLY	15.8% 202	20.0% 306	18.1% 508
SEV. A WK.	6.3% 80	10.6% 162	8.6% 242
DK, NO ANS	0.3% 4	0.5% 7	0.4% 11
TOTAL	100% 1280	100% 1532	2812

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Religious Service Attendance by Race (General Social Survey, 2004)

	WHITE	BLACK	OTHER	TOTAL
NEVER	18.4% 411	8.5% 32	13.9% 28	16.7% 471
< 1 A YEAR	7.8% 175	3.4% 13	5.0% 10	7.0% 198
1 OR 2 YR.	15.0% 335	7.2% 27	16.9% 34	14.1% 396
SEV.A YEAR	13.4% 300	11.1% 42	14.4% 29	13.2% 371
1 A MONTH	6.4% 144	8.2% 31	8.0% 16	6.8% 191
2-3 MONTH	7.4% 165	18.0% 68	10.9% 22	9.1% 255
ABOUT WKLY	6.0% 134	6.9% 26	4.5% 9	6.0% 169
WEEKLY	17.7% 396	20.4% 77	17.4% 35	18.1% 508
SEV. A WK.	7.4% 166	15.9% 60	8.0% 16	8.6% 242
DK, NO ANS	0.4% 8	0.3% 1	1.0% 2	0.4% 11
TOTAL	100% 2234	100% 377	100% 201	2812

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Religious Service Attendance by Religion (General Social Survey, 2004)

	PROTESTANT	CATHOLIC	OTHER	NONE	Missing	TOTAL
NEVER	9.0% 133	9.1% 60	15.5% 40	58.6% 236	2	16.8% 469
< 1 A YEAR	7.5% 111	5.2% 34	6.2% 16	8.9% 36	1	7.0% 197
1 OR 2 YR.	12.8% 190	14.2% 93	15.1% 39	18.4% 74	0	14.1% 396
SEV.A YEAR	13.0% 193	15.5% 102	21.3% 55	5.2% 21	0	13.3% 371
1 A MONTH	6.9% 102	8.7% 57	8.5% 22	2.5% 10	0	6.8% 191
2-3 MONTH	10.7% 158	9.8% 64	7.8% 20	3.0% 12	1	9.1% 254
ABOUT WKLY	6.9% 103	7.8% 51	4.3% 11	1.0% 4	0	6.0% 169
WEEKLY	20.0% 296	26.4% 173	12.0% 31	1.7% 7	1	18.1% 507
SEV. A WK.	13.2% 196	3.4% 22	8.1% 21	0.7% 3	0	8.6% 242
DK, NO ANS	0.1% 1	0.0% 0	1.2% 3	0.0% 0	7	0.1% 4
TOTAL	100% 1483	100% 656	100% 258	100% 403	12	2800

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Religious Service Attendance by Age (General Social Survey, 2004)

	18-30	31-44	45-64	65+	Missing	TOTAL
NEVER	17.1% 102	16.4% 133	17.0% 164	16.5% 71	1	16.8% 470
< 1 A YEAR	6.0% 36	8.1% 66	7.0% 68	6.5% 28	0	7.1% 198
1 OR 2 YR.	20.6% 123	13.1% 106	12.9% 125	9.3% 40	2	14.1% 394
SEV.A YEAR	14.6% 87	13.1% 106	14.2% 137	9.3% 40	1	13.2% 370
1 A MONTH	8.9% 53	7.9% 64	5.9% 57	4.0% 17	0	6.8% 191
2-3 MONTH	9.2% 55	9.8% 79	8.6% 83	8.6% 37	1	9.1% 254
ABOUT WKLY	5.7% 34	5.9% 48	6.0% 58	6.5% 28	1	6.0% 168
WEEKLY	11.6% 69	16.3% 132	18.2% 176	30.2% 130	1	18.1% 507
SEV. A WK.	6.2% 37	9.0% 73	9.7% 94	8.6% 37	1	8.6% 241
DK, NO ANS	0.0% 0	0.4% 3	0.5% 5	0.5% 2	1	0.4% 10
TOTAL	100% 596	100% 810	100% 967	100% 430	9	2803

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Religious Service Attendance by Church attendance (General Social Survey, 2004)

	NEVER	< 1 A MNTH	< 1 A WEEK	WEEKLY +	Missing	TOTAL
NEVER	100.0% 471	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0	16.8% 471
< 1 A YEAR	0.0% 0	20.5% 198	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0	7.1% 198
1 OR 2 YR.	0.0% 0	41.0% 396	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0	14.1% 396
SEV.A YEAR	0.0% 0	38.4% 371	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0	13.2% 371
1 A MONTH	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	31.1% 191	0.0% 0	0	6.8% 191
2-3 MONTH	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	41.5% 255	0.0% 0	0	9.1% 255
ABOUT WKLY	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	27.5% 169	0.0% 0	0	6.0% 169
WEEKLY	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	67.7% 508	0	18.1% 508
SEV. A WK.	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	32.3% 242	0	8.6% 242
DK, NO ANS	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	0.0% 0	11	0.0% 0
TOTAL	100% 471	100% 965	100% 615	100% 750	11	2801

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Religious Service Attendance by Political ideology (General Social Survey, 2004)

	LIBERAL	MODERATE	CONSERV	Missing	TOTAL
NEVER	23.2% 74	17.5% 87	12.6% 62	248	17.0% 223
< 1 A YEAR	11.3% 36	6.8% 34	6.1% 30	98	7.6% 100
1 OR 2 YR.	15.7% 50	15.1% 75	12.2% 60	211	14.1% 185
SEV.A YEAR	11.9% 38	12.5% 62	12.2% 60	211	12.2% 160
1 A MONTH	5.3% 17	8.2% 41	6.5% 32	101	6.9% 90
2-3 MONTH	8.5% 27	9.1% 45	7.3% 36	147	8.3% 108
ABOUT WKLY	5.3% 17	6.2% 31	6.5% 32	89	6.1% 80
WEEKLY	13.5% 43	18.1% 90	24.3% 120	255	19.3% 253
SEV. A WK.	4.7% 15	6.2% 31	12.2% 60	136	8.1% 106
DK, NO ANS	0.6% 2	0.2% 1	0.2% 1	7	0.3% 4
TOTAL	100% 319	100% 497	100% 493	1503	1309

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Religious Service Attendance by Education (General Social Survey, 2004)

	LESS HS	HS DEGREE	JR COLL	BA DEGREE	GRAD DEGRE	Missing	TOTAL
NEVER	23.4% 85	17.3% 248	12.5% 28	13.6% 69	14.6% 41	0	16.8% 471
< 1 A YEAR	8.5% 31	7.0% 100	5.8% 13	6.5% 33	7.5% 21	0	7.0% 198
1 OR 2 YR.	11.3% 41	14.8% 212	11.6% 26	15.8% 80	13.2% 37	0	14.1% 396
SEV.A YEAR	10.2% 37	13.3% 191	17.4% 39	13.6% 69	12.5% 35	0	13.2% 371
1 A MONTH	6.0% 22	7.7% 110	4.9% 11	6.1% 31	6.0% 17	0	6.8% 191
2-3 MONTH	10.4% 38	8.5% 122	11.6% 26	8.3% 42	9.3% 26	1	9.0% 254
ABOUT WKLY	6.6% 24	5.4% 77	6.7% 15	6.9% 35	6.4% 18	0	6.0% 169
WEEKLY	15.4% 56	17.3% 248	16.5% 37	20.3% 103	22.8% 64	0	18.1% 508
SEV. A WK.	8.0% 29	8.6% 124	11.6% 26	8.3% 42	7.5% 21	0	8.6% 242
DK, NO ANS	0.3% 1	0.2% 3	1.3% 3	0.6% 3	0.4% 1	0	0.4% 11
TOTAL	100% 364	100% 1435	100% 224	100% 507	100% 281	1	2811

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Notes

General Social Survey, 2004: General Social Survey: Since 1972, the National Opinion Research Center has conducted a nationwide survey of a random sample of U.S. citizens on a near-yearly basis—the General Social Survey (GSS). In addition to gathering detailed demographic information on respondents, the GSS gathers opinions on a wide variety of topics, such as the role of government in public life, controversial issues such as abortion, confidence in public institutions and a host of others. Of course, respondents are unlikely to spend five hours completing a survey so in order to gather data on a broad range of issues the GSS has adopted the practice of rotating groups of questions into and out of the survey in different years.