Church of England attendance figures: Number of children in church falls in half over the past 20 years

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Neil O’Brien: (Cons.) Harborough: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what average weekly attendance was in each year since 1994.

Answered on 12 April 2024

Andrew Selous: The National Church Institutions first started collecting attendance data centrally in the autumn of 2000; as a result, it is not possible to publish data for the period 1994-1999. A methodological change also took place between 2000 and 2003 which means statistics for those years are not directly comparable with the data now collected. The data displayed below shows the longest period of comparable figures available, from 2003-2022.

Adult average weekly attendanceChild average weekly attendanceAll age average weekly attendanceAdult average Sunday attendanceChild average Sunday attendanceAll age average Sunday attendanceAdult average school service attendanceChild average school service attendanceAll age average school service attendance
2003905,000218,0001,126,000802,000154,000959,000n/an/an/a
2004896,000220,0001,119,000789,000151,000942,000n/an/an/a
2005898,000218,0001,119,000791,000147,000941,000n/an/an/a
2006894,000217,0001,115,000786,000145,000935,000n/an/an/a
2007888,000205,0001,097,000779,000137,000919,000n/an/an/a
2008877,000215,0001,094,000768,000139,000910,000n/an/an/a
2009867,000211,0001,082,000758,000134,000895,000n/an/an/a
2010851,000208,0001,062,000741,000130,000874,000n/an/an/a
2011840,000207,0001,050,000728,000127,000858,000n/an/an/a
2012843,000202,0001,049,000733,000128,000864,000n/an/an/a
2013836,000157,000994,000721,000124,000845,00023,000103,000126,000
2014831,000144,000975,000711,000119,000830,00035,000113,000148,000
2015819,000140,000959,000698,000115,000813,00040,000131,000171,000
2016791,000132,000922,000671,000108,000780,00042,000139,000182,000
2017767,000127,000895,000653,000104,000757,00046,000152,000198,000
2018752,000120,000872,000635,00096,000730,00040,000137,000177,000
2019734,000120,000854,000613,00094,000707,00041,000141,000182,000
2020317,00028,000345,000273,00024,000298,000n/an/an/a
2021531,00075,000605,000447,00062,000509,00018,00071,00089,000
2022567,00087,000654,000477,00070,000547,00036,000128,000164,000

Attendance figures are collected from churches for the first 4 Sundays of October and in the following Monday-Saturday midweek periods – this exercise is referred to as the “October count”. Figures include attendance at baptisms, as these usually take place in service, but not attendance at weddings and funerals. Attendance at services for schools is NOT included in the average weekly and average Sunday attendance figures but is reported separately.

In 2013, the question was changed to specifically ask about attendance at school services. Prior to 2013, it was apparent that some churches included such attendance in their reported figures while others did not. The change in question during this year resulted in a large change in the average weekly attendance from 2012 to 2013 and a more consistent practice across the church as a whole.