Utah's church attendance tops nation — but even more stay home
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Regular religious attendance is more common in Utah than in any other state, per a new analysis of Household Pulse Survey data from Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng.
The intrigue: While attendance is high, even more Utahns — 44% — said they never attend.
- That's lower than the national average of 49% of people saying they don't attend — but higher than many states in the South and Southeast.
By the numbers: 38% of Utahns attend religious services at least 12 times per year, well above the national average of 21%.
- Mississippi, Louisiana and Kansas are the only other states where at least 30% of people attend that often.
Zoom in: That's consistent with attendance levels reported by members of the state's dominant faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- 54% of members surveyed said they attend at least weekly, according to a Gallup report released this week.
- The next-highest weekly attendance was reported by Protestant Christians, at 30%.
The big picture: 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 started tracking such sentiment in 2001.
- Many people are unhappy about that, with about half of adults telling Pew both 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 trendline: 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."