Leader Insights

Church Membership Statistics 2027: Latest 2026 Data and Trends

How many Americans belong to a church, and why do people join, leave or switch? The latest sourced figures from Gallup, Lifeway Research, Pew Research Center and Springtide Research Institute. Each survey measures membership differently, so every figure names its publisher and year. Every figure links to its original study. Updated October 2026.

Membership statistics at a glance

StatisticFigureYearSource
Americans who belong to a church, synagogue or mosque (Gallup, 2025; 73% in 1937)45%2025Gallup
Americans who said they belong to a church, synagogue or mosque in 2019, the lowest in Gallup's survey history at that time50%2019Lifeway Research
Total Southern Baptist Convention membership (Lifeway Research, 2025)12.33 million2025Lifeway Research
Members of Southern Baptist congregations (Lifeway Research, 2024)12.72 million2024Lifeway Research
Southern Baptist Convention total membership (Lifeway Research, 2019)14.53 million2019Lifeway Research
People baptized in Southern Baptist churches (Lifeway Research, 2025)263,0752025Lifeway Research
Regular Protestant churchgoers who are members of the church they attend (Lifeway Research, 2024)82%2024Lifeway Research
Non-member churchgoers who say they have not attended their church long enough to join (Lifeway Research, 2024)39%2024Lifeway Research
Church switchers who left because things changed at the church that they did not like (Lifeway Research, 2023)29%2023Lifeway Research
Protestant or non-denominational switchers who left because they were unhappy with their previous church (Lifeway Research, 2024)40%2024Lifeway Research
Church switchers calling beliefs and doctrines important when choosing a church (Lifeway Research, 2023 survey)86%2025Lifeway Research
Church switchers who visited in person to find a new church (Lifeway Research, 2023 survey)71%2025Lifeway Research

How many Americans belong to a church?

How churches define and track members

Southern Baptist membership and baptisms

Why people leave a church

Church switching and how people choose a church

Young adults, dropping out and religious switching

Looking ahead to 2027: what the latest data points to

No 2027 statistics have been published yet. Here is what the newest readings suggest. We update this page as new research arrives.

Membership statistics: common questions

What percent of Americans belong to a church?

Gallup found 45% of Americans belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque in 2025, down from 73% in 1937 and 70% in 1999. In 2019 the figure was 50%, which Gallup described as its lowest reading at that time. Membership here is self-reported and covers all religions.

How many members does the Southern Baptist Convention have?

Lifeway Research's Annual Church Profile counted 12.33 million Southern Baptist Convention members in 2025, down from 12.72 million in 2024 and 14.53 million in 2019. Baptisms rose to 263,075 in 2025. These figures cover one denomination only.

Why do people not join the church they attend?

Among Protestant churchgoers who are not members, 39% said they have not attended long enough, 22% said they have not gotten around to it and 15% do not see the value in membership (Lifeway Research, 2024). In that survey 82% of regular Protestant churchgoers were already members of their church.

Why do people leave a church?

In Lifeway Research's 2023 switcher survey, 29% said things changed at the church that they did not like and 29% said it was not fulfilling their needs, while 2% said their church closed. Lifeway Research's 2024 survey of those who left for reasons other than a move found 32% cited judgmental members and 30% cited hypocritical members.

How do people choose a new church?

Lifeway Research's 2023 church switcher survey found 86% called beliefs and doctrines important, 86% called preaching important and 80% called worship style important. On how they found it, 71% visited in person, 56% used recommendations and 37% used the church website.

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About this data

Leader Insights collects statistics about U.S. churches from published research. Every number is checked against the wording of the original source before it is published, and each statistic links back to the study it came from. Different studies define the same topic differently, so figures from different sources are not directly comparable; each is labeled with its publisher and year.