Median worship attendance highest since COVID lockdowns: report

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Median in-person weekly worship attendance in the U.S. is the highest it's been since before the COVID-19 lockdowns that forced the closure of churches, according to a report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research (HIRR).

HIRR’s Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations (EPIC) project announced last Friday the findings of its most recent research on worship attendance among U.S. faith communities.

The report largely drew from a survey of 7,453 congregations across diverse religious groups conducted between September and December 2025, with a margin of error of ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

According to the researchers, median in-person worship attendance last year was 70 people, higher than the 65 people reported just before the 2020 pandemic lockdowns.

It also sharply contrasts with the median in-person attendance of 45 that was recorded during the pandemic. The number had been annually growing since that low point, according to the report.

While the EPIC report described the 2025 numbers as “the first positive gain in median attendance in 25 years,” researchers warned that “it should be interpreted with caution.”

“The current median of 70 remains far below the median in 2000 when the typical congregation drew 137 attenders,” the report explained. “Therefore, this recent gain should be viewed within the much longer historical trajectory of decline.”

The report went on to note that median attendance figures vary considerably across faith traditions, with Catholic and Orthodox congregations having the largest median attendance at 200 people, Evangelical Protestants at 75, Mainline Protestants at 50 and other religious traditions at 22 attendees.

“What we’re seeing is not a revival — it’s a recalibration,” said Allison Norton, co-investigator on the EPIC project, in a statement released last week regarding the findings.

“Congregations have been through an extraordinary period of disruption, and though it has taken a while, many have come out of it with greater clarity about who they are and what they’re called to do. That’s showing up in the data in ways that are genuinely encouraging.” 

While much has been made about the rise of religiously unaffiliated Americans, some recent reports indicate that the decline in religious practice in the U.S. might be ebbing.

In January, Lifeway Research released an analysis of data from the Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study that indicated younger adults were seeing a modest increase in religious practice compared to slightly older peers, though still behind older Americans.

"The youngest adults are slightly more likely to include new Christian converts and less likely to have those who leave the faith," said Lifeway Research senior writer Aaron Earls in a statement.

"Again, the findings don’t give a simple picture of religion in America or among young adults. There are reasons for optimism and concern."