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^ I believe church attendance has been shrinking across all developed countries for a few decades now - it just took the USA longer to catch up with the shrinking.
Generally southern catholic churches have a decent amount of Latino population, which keeps the church healthy and growing. For many older northern cities, the catholics are of Polish, Hungarian, German, Irish, Italian, Slovenian, Slovak, Balkans, etc decent....meaning very few new immigrants/older demographics. At least that's what happened with Cleveland, Boston, Buffalo etc. Aside from all the scandals.
I assume it's similar for orthodox.
Exempting Louisiana the South is traditionally about the least Catholic part of America. So even among the non-Hispanic population it still sometimes has a bit of the "missionary spirit" which might encourage growth or at least doesn't encourage complacency as much. Being born Catholic in Northwest Arkansas in the 1970s was...interesting.
Exempting Louisiana the South is traditionally about the least Catholic part of America. So even among the non-Hispanic population it still sometimes has a bit of the "missionary spirit" which might encourage growth or at least doesn't encourage complacency as much. Being born Catholic in Northwest Arkansas in the 1970s was...interesting.
Maybe costello_musicman was referring to the Southwest where the Catholic church is very strong. For example the LA archdiocese is the largest in America in part due to the huge influx of Hispanics from Mexico and Central America. The cardinal is super pro-immigrant and defies the government to deport illegal immigrants so that may be another reason why the Catholic church is still growing in California.
I feel like Catholic churches in Southern metro areas are pretty thriving. They are here in Memphis. Baptist churches on the other hand are declining because many of them are leaving for non-denominational churches. "Baptist" just has a negative conotation to many people.
The city I grew up in was heavily Catholic - ~10 churches in a 3 sq mile area. Nearly all had a Catholic grammar school attached. About 3 years ago, the dioceses closed all schools minus 1, which remained open (and renamed). While the demographic has certainly changed, I think a major downfall of the schools was the tuition - you're looking at about $5K a year per child. Not chump change.
My Catholic HS is still open, enrollment is down 70% from when I was there (I graduated in the 80's). I graduated with ~120 girls, last year's class was about 40. They are surviving on donations and it's a question year to year whether they'll remain open.
More Americans attend a church service every week than any other public or private events combined. 45% of the U.S. population attends a service every week, which comes out to 139 million in attendance. This is an amazing number which points out that the death of organized religion is greatly overstated. The combination of all sporting events, movies etc., would not even come close to this attendance. Only 50% of our population votes in the presidential election every four years and look how big of a deal that is, now look at church attendance. It's equal to this every Sunday. What's even more surprising while I researched the numbers(Nation Master.com Religion attendance) is that there are five European nations which top the U.S. in church attendance. The following nations - Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Italy all topped the U.S.
If I where to only believe what I read by the opinions on City Data Forums I would believe that 40% of our nation is atheist and only maybe 10% of Americans attend services.
More Americans attend a church service every week than any other public or private events combined. 45% of the U.S. population attends a service every week, which comes out to 139 million in attendance. This is an amazing number which points out that the death of organized religion is greatly overstated. The combination of all sporting events, movies etc., would not even come close to this attendance. Only 50% of our population votes in the presidential election every four years and look how big of a deal that is, now look at church attendance. It's equal to this every Sunday. What's even more surprising while I researched the numbers(Nation Master.com Religion attendance) is that there are five European nations which top the U.S. in church attendance. The following nations - Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Italy all topped the U.S.
If I where to only believe what I read by the opinions on City Data Forums I would believe that 40% of our nation is atheist and only maybe 10% of Americans attend services.
but is this number larger or smaller over the past 40-50 years?
More Americans attend a church service every week than any other public or private events combined. 45% of the U.S. population attends a service every week, which comes out to 139 million in attendance. This is an amazing number which points out that the death of organized religion is greatly overstated. The combination of all sporting events, movies etc., would not even come close to this attendance. Only 50% of our population votes in the presidential election every four years and look how big of a deal that is, now look at church attendance. It's equal to this every Sunday. What's even more surprising while I researched the numbers(Nation Master.com Religion attendance) is that there are five European nations which top the U.S. in church attendance. The following nations - Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Italy all topped the U.S.
If I where to only believe what I read by the opinions on City Data Forums I would believe that 40% of our nation is atheist and only maybe 10% of Americans attend services.
I'm just curious if the 45% population attending service is purely Christian service, or is that percent include all religions (Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, Buddest, etc).
According to recent studies, 15% of Americans are atheist today. It is up from 8% in 1990. Definitely an increase, but it still doesn't compare to the 85% who believe in God.
I read somewhere (sorry for the vagueness, I tried to search for the article) that after the rise of 'Mega Churches' in the 90's, the decline in Mainline Protestants from which the Mega Churches siphoned off members, has leveled off.
After a short flattening in the growth of Mega Churches in the first part of this decade, their numbers are on the rise again as Catholics, fleeing the Catholic Church for various reasons, are looking towards Mega Churches to fill their spiritual needs.
This appears to be a phenomenon in the Midwest and West according to the article. In the Northeast it declared that Catholic rates were steady or increasing in urban areas due to immigrants from Mexico and South America.
Last edited by ABQConvict; 09-28-2010 at 12:34 PM..
Exempting Louisiana the South is traditionally about the least Catholic part of America. So even among the non-Hispanic population it still sometimes has a bit of the "missionary spirit" which might encourage growth or at least doesn't encourage complacency as much. Being born Catholic in Northwest Arkansas in the 1970s was...interesting.
I live in SW Alabama and there are some pretty old Catholic churches around here, especially in Mobile (although still outnumbered by Baptists and Methodist).
I don't go to church myself, but I do notice that many of the church-goers tend to be older/elderly. I'm 31 and many people I know that are my age don't attend church.
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