Age and Religious Participation

• The general pattern of religious participation is that the older a person is, the more likely they are to attend religious services. However, as Table 1E shows, there is one partial exception to this pattern: the under 15s are generally more likely to go to church than those in most of the age groups above them. This is because they may have less choice in the matter and are made to go by their parents.
• However, the overall trend is clear from the Table: for any given age group apart from those aged 65 and over, there is an ongoing fall in church attendance, and the fall is sharpest among the young. For example, the number of 15-19 year olds attending church is projected to fall by over 37% between 2020 and 2030, from 80,000 to 50,000. By 2030, 15-19 year olds will be a mere 2% of all churchgoers. Half of all English churches have no-one under 20 attending.