Iowans' declining religious attendance
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Almost half of Iowans confess they never or rarely attend church or religious services.
The big picture: The rest of the country is similar. Iowa is on par with the national average at 49%, per a new analysis of Household Pulse Survey data between February and March 2024.
By the numbers: Of those who do attend, 10% of residents in the state say they went to services 1-3 times a year, 7% attended 4-11 times per year, and 24% went 12 or more times.
Zoom in: The latest numbers show a statewide attendance drop compared to previous years. In 2010, 54% of Iowans attended religious services.
- In 2000, it was 58%, according to a previous Register report.
Zoom out: Vermont (75%), New Hampshire (66%) and Maine (66%) have the highest share of adults who say they never or seldom attend church or religious services.
- Mississippi (32%), Alabama (36%) and Louisiana (37%) have the lowest shares.
State of play: More than three-quarters of Americans say religion's role in public life is shrinking, per a recent Pew Research Center survey — the highest level since the group first started tracking such sentiment in 2001.
- Many Americans are unhappy about that, with about half of adults telling Pew that "religion is losing influence and that this is a bad thing."
- About 57% of adults say that religion has a positive impact on American life, per Pew.
Friction point: Nearly half of U.S. adults say they feel at least "some" tension between their religious beliefs and mainstream culture, Pew found.
- That's up from 42% in 2020.
The bottom line: Religious service attendance has been dropping for decades, per Gallup, driven largely by "the increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation — 9% in 2000-2003 versus 21% in 2021-2023."