IN-PERSON church attendance has yet to achieve pre-pandemic levels, but figures are “moving closer”, preliminary figures for 2024 from the Church of England suggest.
Statistics within the 2024 preliminary snapshot report, published on Friday, suggest that the general variety of “worshipping communities” grew from 1.01 million in 2023 to 1.02 million in 2024.
This remains to be 8.5 per cent lower than in 2019, when there have been 1.1 million regular worshippers, but 1.2 per cent higher than in 2023.
In Statistics for Mission 2023, the “Worshipping Community of a church” was defined as “those individuals who attend worship commonly, once a month or more (whether in-person or ‘at home’)”.
The Archbishop of York said of the 2024 increase: “The Church of England exists to share the excellent news of Jesus Christ and to like and serve our neighbours in every community in England. So it’s encouraging to see further signs that more individuals are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and having their lives modified.”
People of all ages attending church on a typical Sunday increased by 1.2 per cent in 2024; in 2023, it increased by 3.6 per cent.
The Church of England’s Director for Vision and Strategy, Debbie Clinton, said: “Our statistics are way more than numbers, each represents a person who is a component of a neighborhood church, serving their community across the country.
“In 2024 we now have heard and seen exciting stories of growth in parishes in each urban and rural contexts, in our estates and in post-industrial and coastal towns.”
The statistics also show a gradual trend in overall in-person attendance at services across the week. Last 12 months, just over 701,000 people attended church weekly, a 1.2 per cent increase from 2023.
Church House suggests that the rise in attendance was resulting from an increase within the variety of over-16s going to church.
Archbishop Cottrell said: “Although that is only a snapshot and we don’t know the ages of those that have began attending church previously 12 months, other evidence suggests that a lot of these are young adults.
“This can also be my experience of visiting churches Sunday by Sunday and baptising and confirming latest Christians.”
Ms Clinton concluded: “Nationally we aim to be sure that each young person has a flourishing children, youth and families’ ministry within sight of them, we’re seeing growth within the variety of churches with greater than 25 young people attending.”
