Church Attendance Plummets in UK, Congregation Numbers Fall 15 Percent
Church of England data reveals fewer than one in ten babies is baptised
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Church attendance in the UK is plummeting, according to new figures released this week.
New data highlighted by the Church of England reveals that a typical Anglican congregation counted just 27 worshippers last year.
The figures show that over a decade, congregations have dropped by 15 percent, church marriages have fallen by a third, and fewer than one in ten babies are now being baptized.
According to estimates revealed by the Christian CofE, a typical church hosted just one traditional white wedding in 2018.
Church leaders insist, however, that Christianity is booming online and that Church of England prayer apps were used more than five million times during last year.
Prayers and sermons are now receiving 3.6million clicks every month via digital worshipping methods.
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According to the Daily Mail, the Bishop of Ripon, the Rt Rev Dr. Helen-Ann Hartley, said: "Christians have been praying the morning and evening offices for centuries and it is inspiring that this is available through new platforms and devices to meet the way people live now."
The figures, which contrast the fast-dwindling likelihood that people will turn up to church services with the CofE’s growing use of online prayer, were based on parish records and surveys.
The longstanding measure of numbers who go to church, Usual Sunday Attendance, which counts numbers in services on Sundays, found the total was 703,000 in 2018.
This is down by more than 80,000 in five years and well below half the level of the late 1960s.
In some dioceses less that one in 100 people went to church on Sunday, and across England 1.2 percent of the population was Sunday churchgoers.
The Church has another measure of its followers, Average Weekly Attendance, developed to reflect that modern Christians are as likely to go to church on weekdays as Sundays.
When first published in 2001, it showed 1.3million churchgoers a week.
But yesterday’s figures put Average Weekly Attendance at 870,900.
In contrast, the most up-to-date official study of Muslim attendance figures at British mosques found that 930,000 Muslims in 2005 attended a Mosque at least once a week.
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At a middle-sized "median" church, said by officials to be "useful to consider when thinking about a typical church," there were just 27 worshippers as estimated by Usual Sunday Attendance.
A similar-sized church could expect to have just one wedding, three baptisms and five funerals a year.
Between 2008 and 2018, the figures showed, there was a fall of 33 percent in overall numbers of church weddings.
Just 34,000 were solemnized in CofE churches, down almost 30 percent in five years.
