Leisure Time in Our Community - Our Youth: Religious Attitudes And Attendance

Religious attendance by 12th graders has fallen off sharply since the mid-1970s, but the percentage of 12th graders that feel religion has an important role in their lives has increased. Since 1986, the percentage has been rising and by 1995, the percentage that attend religious services and who feel religion plays an important role in their lives was nearly identical. In recent years, many religious bodies have tried new ways of worship to appeal to youth. Has it been working?

What about attitudes and attendance of younger children? The following table shows the percentage of 8th and 10th graders who attend weekly religious services and the percentage of those who feel that religion plays an important role in their lives. As the table on the next page and the graph above show, consistently just shy of a third of all 8th, 10th, and 12th graders feel that religion plays an important part in their lives, but as children get older, the percentage attending weekly religious services drops. In 1995, 42% of 8th graders attended weekly religious services. That same year, only 32% of 12th graders attended weekly religious services.

Religious Attitudes and Attendance: Percentage of 8th and 10th Graders

	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
8th graders:
Weekly attendance	46	43	42	42	42
Religion plays an "important role" in their lives	29	27	30	30	30
10th graders:
Weekly attendance	38	39	40	37	37
Religion plays an "important role" in their lives	29	28	29	28	29

The next panel shows the 15 religions that have seen the largest growth from 1990-2000.

Source: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth, 1997 Edition, 1997. Retrieved February 11, 2002 from http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/97trends/sd1-3.htm.