Sunday service statistics at a glance
Sunday service attendance is more layered than a simple in-person count. The 2025 Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study shows that weekly or monthly religious participation now spans in-person attendance, online viewing, and combinations of both. That means the size of the audience is not just about who sits in a sanctuary on Sunday morning, but also about who joins from home, who does both, and which faith communities are most likely to stay engaged through multiple channels (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
Table of contents
- Quick takeaways
- Overall Sunday service patterns
- How different groups compare
- What the data says about religion and participation
- Online and in-person attendance together
- Reading the numbers carefully
Quick takeaways
The headline number is straightforward: 40% of U.S. adults participate in religious services either in person, online, or both at least monthly (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). That is not the same thing as 40% attending in person every Sunday, and the distinction matters. The survey splits participation into three useful buckets: people who attend in person and watch online, people who attend in person but do not watch online monthly, and people who watch online but do not attend in person monthly.
A few more broad markers stand out:
- 16% of U.S. adults attend in person monthly or more often and also watch online monthly or more often (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- 17% attend in person monthly or more often but not online monthly or more often (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- 8% watch services online monthly or more often but not in person monthly or more often (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- Among religiously affiliated adults, 55% participate in religious services either in person, online, or both at least monthly (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
Those four numbers already show the shape of modern Sunday service habits. A large share of engagement is still tied to in-person worship, but online participation is now large enough to show up as its own category, not just a backup option.
Overall Sunday service patterns
The overall U.S. adult figures show a three-part pattern that is useful for any reader trying to understand Sunday service statistics. First, there is a core of people who attend in person and also watch online. Second, there is a separate group who attend in person but do not watch online monthly. Third, there is a smaller but visible online-only monthly audience.
Here is the U.S. adult breakdown from the Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study:
| Category | Share of U.S. adults |
|---|---|
| Attend in person and watch online monthly or more often | 16% |
| Attend in person monthly or more often, not online monthly or more often | 17% |
| Watch online monthly or more often, not in person monthly or more often | 8% |
| Participate in religious services in person, online, or both at least monthly | 40% |
The table highlights something easy to miss if you only focus on one attendance channel. The combined monthly participation total is much larger than any one channel by itself. In other words, Sunday service statistics are increasingly about participation ecosystems rather than a single room, building, or broadcast stream.
That broader frame also helps explain why the online share matters. An 8% online-only monthly audience may look small at first glance, but it is a distinct slice of the population that would be invisible in a purely in-person model. And the 16% who do both in-person and online monthly show that digital participation is not limited to occasional visitors. For some people, online and in-person services are complementary rather than competing behaviors.
How different groups compare
The same Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study shows large differences across religious affiliation groups. The pattern is not simply “religious versus not religious.” It is also about how often people show up in person, how often they use online services, and how those two behaviors overlap.
Religious affiliation groups
| Group | In person and online monthly | In person monthly only | Online monthly only | Monthly participation total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Religiously affiliated adults | 22% | 23% | 10% | 55% |
| Christians | 23% | 25% | 10% | 58% |
| Protestants | 27% | 24% | 12% | 62% |
| Evangelical Protestants | 33% | 27% | 11% | 71% |
| Mainline Protestants | 13% | 22% | 9% | 43% |
| Historically Black Protestants | 34% | 12% | 20% | 66% |
| Catholics | 14% | 25% | 7% | 46% |
| Orthodox Christians | 11% | 26% | 5% | 43% |
| Latter-day Saints | 24% | 52% | 4% | 80% |
| Members of other religions | 11% | 13% | 7% | 30% |
| Jewish adults | 6% | 17% | 5% | 29% |
| Muslim adults | 28% | 18% | 10% | 57% |
| Buddhist adults | 6% | 11% | 12% | 29% |
| Hindu adults | 18% | 17% | 4% | 39% |
| Religiously unaffiliated adults | 2% | 2% | 3% | 6% |
| Atheists | Less than 1% | 1% | Less than 1% | 1% |
| Agnostics | Less than 1% | 1% | Less than 1% | 2% |
| Nothing in particular | 2% | 2% | 4% | 9% |
The spread is wide. At the high end, Latter-day Saints show 80% monthly participation in religious services either in person, online, or both (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). At the low end, the religiously unaffiliated are at 6%, with atheists at 1% and agnostics at 2% (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
These figures are useful because they show how participation changes by group without flattening all religious life into one average. A single national number would hide major differences in both intensity and channel mix.
What stands out in the table
A few comparisons deserve special attention.
- Evangelical Protestants have the highest monthly participation total among the Protestant categories listed at 71% (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- Historically Black Protestants combine a very high 34% in-person-and-online monthly share with a 20% online-only monthly share, suggesting a strong digital dimension alongside in-person engagement (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- Latter-day Saints have a very high 52% who attend in person monthly or more often but not online monthly or more often, which makes their pattern different from groups with stronger online-only participation (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- Catholics show a more balanced picture: 14% attend in person and watch online monthly, 25% attend in person only monthly, and 7% watch online only monthly, for a 46% total monthly participation rate (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
The table also shows that online-only participation is not distributed evenly. Some groups have relatively low online-only shares even when total participation is high. Others have a meaningful online-only segment that signals a different service habit. That is one reason Sunday service statistics should be read as channel behavior, not just attendance counts.
What the data says about religion and participation
The most important interpretive point is that monthly participation is a broader concept than physical presence. The Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study uses a structure that captures overlap between in-person and online worship. That matters because worship behavior can be hybrid. Some people watch services online when they cannot attend in person. Some do both because each channel serves a different purpose.
The data suggests several broad patterns.
First, religious affiliation is strongly associated with monthly participation. Among U.S. adults overall, 40% participate monthly or more often in person, online, or both. Among religiously affiliated adults, that figure rises to 55% (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). That gap shows that affiliation still strongly predicts participation.
Second, the strength of participation varies substantially by tradition. The figures range from 80% among Latter-day Saints to 29% among Jewish adults and Buddhist adults, and 30% among members of other religions (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). Within Christianity, the range is also wide, from 43% for mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians to 71% for evangelical Protestants (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
Third, online participation is not just a replacement for in-person attendance. Across the listed groups, the “both in person and online” category is often substantial. For example, 22% of religiously affiliated adults and 23% of Christians are in that combined category, while 27% of Protestants and 33% of evangelical Protestants are there too (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). That suggests digital worship is often part of a blended routine rather than a fully separate one.
Online and in-person attendance together
Sunday service statistics become more interesting when you compare the people who mix channels with those who rely on only one. The overlap category is often the clearest sign that online services are integrated into religious life.
A few examples show the range:
- 33% of evangelical Protestants attend in person monthly or more often and also watch online monthly or more often (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- 34% of historically Black Protestants fall into the same combined monthly pattern (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- 24% of Latter-day Saints attend in person monthly and also watch online monthly (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- 28% of Muslim adults attend in person monthly and also watch online monthly (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
- 6% of Jewish adults and 6% of Buddhist adults are in that combined category, showing much lower overlap than some Christian and Muslim groups (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
The combined category matters because it captures people whose service habits are more flexible. It may reflect travel, health, work schedules, family responsibilities, or preference. The statistics do not explain the reasons, but they do show that a significant amount of religious participation is hybrid.
The online-only category also adds texture. Across U.S. adults, 8% watch services online monthly or more often but do not attend in person monthly or more often (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). That figure is 10% among religiously affiliated adults, 10% among Christians, 12% among Protestants, 11% among evangelical Protestants, 9% among mainline Protestants, and 20% among historically Black Protestants (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study). At the same time, the online-only share is 5% among Orthodox Christians and Jewish adults, 4% among Latter-day Saints and Hindu adults, and 3% among religiously unaffiliated adults (Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study).
That spread shows that online worship is not uniform. Some groups have a meaningful online-only audience, while others are centered much more heavily on in-person attendance.
Reading the numbers carefully
When people search for Sunday service statistics, they often want a single answer. The reality is more useful than that. These figures describe how people participate, not just whether they appear. They also distinguish between multiple forms of participation that can occur in the same month.
A careful reading should keep three ideas in mind:
- Monthly participation is broader than weekly in-person attendance.
- Online and in-person participation overlap for many groups.
- The size of the online-only audience changes a lot by religious tradition.
That means the best use of these statistics is comparative. They are especially helpful when you want to compare traditions, compare channel habits, or understand how worship participation has expanded beyond a single physical venue.
If you are evaluating Sunday service trends for a church, parish, synagogue, mosque, or other faith community, the key question is not just how many people show up. It is also how people show up. The Pew Research Center 2025 Religious Landscape Study makes that distinction visible by separating in-person-only, online-only, and combined participation patterns.
The result is a clearer picture of religious life in the United States. Some communities still lean heavily toward in-person participation. Others have a stronger digital mix. And for many adults, religious participation now includes both channels rather than one or the other.