Is Church Attendance Turning Upward? And a Surprising Gender Gap

Tracking faith engagement in the U.S. continues to show unexpected trends. One of the most surprising is the gender gap in church attendance. In this article, we share an update about a significant shift in church attendance (men are outpacing women) as well as other critical mid-2025 trends we are watching.

1. Since the pandemic, men report higher levels of church attendance than do women. As of mid-2025, that gap is the largest we’ve ever observed in our research (men at 45% and women at 36%). Over the past several years, we’ve been curious about what appears to be a sizable shift in the faith-life of American men and women. Starting in 2020, seen more clearly in 2022 and now settling into an annual pattern, men report higher levels of churchgoing than do women.

2. Not only are men out-reporting church attendance, but weekly church attendance has been trending downward among women for most of the last 15 years. Something started shifting for women’s engagement in church in the early 2010s. In 2009 more than half of women reported attending church on a weekly basis. Just 10 years later though, this number was cut in half to only 25 percent during the pandemic. Notably, much of this shift coincides with Gen Z aging into adulthood. Barna has previously documented how young women are more likely than their male peers to identify as atheist, agnostic or “no faith.” The current year’s tracking (through July 2025, n=5580 for this year’s data set) shows that women are finally trending up (to 36%).

3. A post-pandemic spike among men. For nearly all of Barna’s four decades of tracking, women have consistently attended church more often than men. This fact has been about as sacrosanct as any in social religion research: Women are more religiously active than men. But something is changing here, too. Today, 45 percent of U.S. adult men report attending church weekly. Looking at the 25-year trend lines, it’s clear that men and women have nearly reversed their historic positions. 

What might be happening among men? The research isn’t entirely clear yet, in part because social research is always more effective at describing a trend than uncovering why that pattern exists. Earlier this year Barna found that young men are leading the surprising rise in commitment to Jesus. While not definitive, it’s also possible that something about the collective pandemic-experience unlocked or reignited interest in church engagement among men. Among women, it’s possible that the pandemic and other social changes of the last five years have caused women to reshuffle their social relationships and their participation in congregational life. Additional research is needed to better understand these critical trends. 

4. The post-pandemic effect also shows up in generational church attendance. We recently reported that younger generations of churchgoers (Gen Z and Millennials) are attending at greater frequency than older generations. Many Boomers seemed to have “retired” from going to church, just as they are stepping back from their working lives.

5. There are slight but important shifts in 2025 faith trends. In this spiritually open moment, it can be helpful to keep up with some key religious trends from the beginning of the year until now. Here is a simple comparison between Barna’s data in January 2025 and July 2025.

• Prayer is the same, with three in four adults praying weekly (not statistically significant). 
• Self-identifying as Christian has shifted down by three percentage points.
• Personal commitment to Christ has increased by three percentage points.
• Weekly church attendance has increased by three percentage points.
• Church volunteering has increased by percentage points. 

It’s worth noting that these shifts are close to or below the levels of statistical significance, yet they represent an important way to keep the pulse on the population’s faith and practice. 

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