PRINCETON, N.J.—America's interest in churchgoing continued to decline in 1964, after a peak year in 1958.
Forty-five per cent of the adult civilian population attended church in a typical week this year. Last year the comparable figure was 46 per cent.
Peak years in church attendance came in 1955 and 1958, when 49 per cent attended in typical periods. Since 1959 there has been a general trend downward.
Today's figure translated into millions of adults indicates that approximately 49 million persons attended church weekly, on the average, during 1964. The comparable figure of 1963 was 50 million, based on an adult civilian population of approximately a million less than last year.
Following are the high lights of the Gallup poll annual audit of churchgoing in the U.S., gathered by the Gallup poll through nationwide surveys at seven periods of the year:
* Catholics were more faithful in their churchgoing than were Protestants.
* Residents of the New England States—where the greatest proportion of Catholics live—scored highest in church attendance.
* Contrary to what is probably a popular notion, persons with college training were more faithful in their attendance during this last year than were those with less formal education.
* Negroes attended church in as great a proportion as did white people. It should be borne in mind, however, that Catholics—who are overwhelmingly of the white race—contribute largely to the figure recorded for white persons.
* Persons in the while-collar occupation group were the best attenders. Manual workers had the poorest record.
* Fewer younger adults went to church during a typical week than was the case with older persons.
* Persons with incomes of 85,000 or more had a better attendance record than did those with smaller incomes.
* In 1964, as in previous years, women were more faithful in attendance than were men.
Because no organization makes a nationwide check of churchgoing, the Gallup poll had annually lent its fact-finding agency for this purpose.
That an estimate of the average attendance figure might be arrived at, surveys of representative samples of the adult population were made during selected weeks in January, February, March, July, August, and November. A total of 11,327 adults were interviewed.
The following question was asked: "Did you, yourself, happen to attend church in the past seven days?"
One Third Went to Church in '40
Evidence that there has been a general leveling off in average church attendance —after an upward trend of fifteen years—is best seen in a comparison of adults per hundred in the population who attended during typical weeks in the past.
In 1940 slightly more than one third of the adult population (37 out of 100) had gone to church during the period surveyed. By 1955 the number of adults who went during the weeks investigated was 49 out of 100.
Here is the trend in the annual audits since 1955:
Attended Church in Typical Week
|
YEAR |
PER CENT |
YEAR |
PER CENT |
|
1955 |
49 |
1960 |
47 |
|
1956 |
46 |
1961 |
47 |
|
1957 |
47 |
1962 |
46 |
|
1958 |
49 |
1963 |
46 |
|
1959 |
47 |
1964 |
45 |
The following tables show the 1964 attendance record of major groupings in population:
|
PER CENT ATTENDING |
PER CENT ATTENDING |
||
|
National |
45 |
Jews |
17 |
|
|
|
New England |
59 |
|
Men |
40 |
Middle Atlantic |
47 |
|
Women |
49 |
East Central |
41 |
|
White |
45 |
West Central |
46 |
|
Negro |
45 |
South |
48 |
|
|
|
West |
35 |
|
College High school |
50 44 |
FAMILY INCOME |
|
|
Grade school |
43 |
$7,000 and over |
48 |
|
|
|
5,000 to 7.000 |
47 |
|
21-29 |
39 |
3,000 to 5,000 |
43 |
|
30-49 |
47 |
Under 3,000 |
43 |
|
50 years and over |
56 |
|
|
|
|
|
CITY SIZE |
|
|
Prof. and business |
46 |
|
|
|
White collar |
51 |
500,000 and over |
45 |
|
Manual workers |
43 |
50,000-500,000 |
46 |
|
Farmers |
45 |
2,500-50,000 |
46 |
|
|
|
Under 2,500 |
|
|
Protestants |
38 |
(not farm) |
39 |
|
Catholics |
71 |
Farm |
45 |
