IN-PERSON church attendance has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, but figures are “moving closer”, preliminary figures for 2024 from the Church of England suggest.
Statistics in the 2024 preliminary snapshot report, published on Friday, suggest that the overall number of “worshipping communities” grew from 1.01 million in 2023 to 1.02 million in 2024.
This is still 8.5 per cent lower than in 2019, when there were 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 people who attend worship regularly, 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 good news of Jesus Christ and to love and serve our neighbours in every community in England. So it is encouraging to see further signs that more people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and having their lives changed.”
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 much more than numbers, each represents an individual who is part of a local church, serving their community across the country.
“In 2024 we have heard and seen exciting stories of growth in parishes in both 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 year, just over 701,000 people attended church weekly, a 1.2 per cent increase from 2023.
Church House suggests that the increase in attendance was due to a rise in the number of over-16s going to church.
Archbishop Cottrell said: “Although this is just a snapshot and we don’t know the ages of those who have started attending church in the past year, other evidence suggests that many of these are young adults.
“This is also my experience of visiting churches Sunday by Sunday and baptising and confirming new Christians.”
Ms Clinton concluded: “Nationally we aim to ensure that each young person has a flourishing children, youth and families’ ministry within reach of them, we are seeing growth in the number of churches with more than 25 young people attending.”
