Interest in Religion

In spite of the presence of millions of atheists and agnostics, and allegations of growth among the Islamic and Mormon faiths in the U.S., more than four out of every five Americans (85%) call themselves "Christian." That figure has remained stable throughout the decade. And a similar quantity of Americans (83%) say their religious faith is very important in their life. Faith has clearly remained a major component of American life.

As has traditionally been true, women were more likely than men to call themselves Christian, to say they are "spiritual," and to portray their faith as very important in their life. Similarly, downscale adults were more likely than upscale adults to embrace these descriptions, blacks were more likely than whites to do so, and people 55 or older were more likely than younger adults to describe themselves in these ways.

Heaven Bound

In spite of intense efforts by Christian ministries in the last five years to facilitate national spiritual revival, 1998 brought about no change in the percentage of adults who are born again Christians. Currently 40% of adults meet the born again criteria.¹ In fact, the percentage of born again adults is the same as it was at the turn of the decade, and is marginally above the level measured 15 years ago (35%). If a significant increase in the proportion of believers is a core sign of spiritual revival, it appears that a national revival has not yet touched the U.S.

A subset of the born again population is evangelicals.² The proportion of adults who are defined as evangelicals has remained both small - 7% - and unchanged over the last six years. However, the spiritual commitment of this group remains strong. Even when compared to born again Christians, during the course of a typical week evangelicals are more likely to attend church (74% vs. 62%, respectively), to read the Bible (90% vs. 64%), to attend Sunday school (52% vs. 33%), to participate in a small group (53% vs. 32%), to volunteer at a church (46% vs. 37%), and to donate money to the church (89% vs. 74%, within the past 30 days).

Church Attendance

Attendance at church services has also remained fixed over time. Currently, four out of ten adults (41%) attend services in a typical week. Two important patterns emerged, however. The first concerns attendance among women, the most stable and supportive demographic group within the Church. Female attendance levels have been slowly, almost imperceptibly, declining over this decade. The second pattern is the lack of increased attendance among Busters during the course of the nineties. Church attendance is traditionally lowest during peoples' twenties and increases as they age. Busters, though religiously inclined, have steadfastly resisted the traditional delayed return to the Church.

Other Religious Activity

Stability may be the best summary of the state of religious life based on the other six tracking statistics we examined. Here are other key findings drawn from the survey.

Sunday School. Attendance in adult Sunday schools has dropped slightly, from 23% in 1997 and 1998 to 19% in 1999. Sunday school remains a draw primarily in the South, where nearly three out of ten adults attend in a typical week. That is double the proportion elsewhere in America. That is related to the comparatively high incidence of Southern Baptists in the South, for whom Sunday school remains a central focus of the church.

Church volunteerism. The proportion of adults who volunteer their free time to participate in the life of a church has also remained stable, currently one out of every four adults (24%). The encouraging signs are the strength of volunteers from the upscale audience. The troubling sign is the decline in volunteerism among women, who typically comprise the backbone of a church's lay worker corps.

Small group ministries. The proportion of adults currently involved in a small group or cell group ministry has remained flat for the last seven years. Slightly less than one out of every five adults (18%) is involved in a small group or cell group.

Bible Reading. The proportion of adults who read the Bible in a typical week, outside of church services, has remained flat at about one out of every three adults doing so in a typical week, outside of church services.

Donating money. Half of all adults donate some money to a church during a typical month. Over the course of 1998, 65% of all adults gave money to one or more churches. The average amount of money donated to churches by those people was $300.

Praying. Three out of four adults pray during a typical week. Those most likely to pray include women, blacks and evangelicals. Busters are the group least likely to pray.

George Barna, president of the firm that conducted the survey, suggested that the apparent plateau in the Christian faith is not likely to be overcome without stronger and more widespread leadership. "The Christian Church has stagnated, largely due to its comfort with routines and rituals that are neither challenging nor relevant for millions of people. The Christian body is seeking visionary leaders who will make the faith more vital and compelling. Absent such leadership, the Church in America will continue to lose its influence in people's lives and in our society. In times of great social change and instability, confident and creative leadership enables faith to become an attractive and logical response to the discomfort and instability of the evolving culture. The Church, in essence, is not sure where it's going and that confusion is taking its toll on individuals and communities of faith."

Survey Methodology

The data are drawn from a nationwide survey of 1002 adults conducted by telephone in January 1999 among a random sample of people 18 or older. All of the interviews were conducted from the Barna Research Group telephone interviewing facility in Ventura, CA. Adults in the 48 continental states were eligible to be interviewed and the distribution coincided with the geographic dispersion of the U.S. adult population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of adults. The maximum sampling error is +3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

The Barna Research Group, Ltd. is an independent marketing research company located in southern California. Since 1984 it has been studying cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. This research was funded solely by Barna Research as part of its regular tracking of attitudes, values and behavior.

Trend data for several of the key religious factors are included in the table below. For more information, contact David Kinnaman at 805-658-8885, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.

Footnotes:

¹ Respondents are classified as "born again Christian" not on the basis of characterizing themselves as "born again" but based upon their answers to two questions. The first is "have you ever made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in your life today?" If the respondent says "yes," then they are asked a follow-up question about life after death. One of the seven perspectives a respondent may choose is "when I die, I will go to Heaven because I have confessed my sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior." Individuals who answer "yes" to the first question and select this statement as their belief about their own salvation are then categorized as "born again."

² Respondents are classified as "evangelical" based upon their answers to nine questions regarding matters of faith. Those included in this segment meet the criteria for being born again, as described above; say their faith is very important in their life today; believe they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believe that Satan exists; believe that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and describe God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Thus, evangelicals are a subset of the born again population. Notice that being an evangelical has no relationship to church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church with which they associate. This label is not related to whether or not respondents consider themselves to be "evangelical."