A recent Gallup poll revealed an alarming decline of Americans attending religious services, with 21 percent of Americans attending services weekly. Altogether, 30 percent of Americans attended religious services in some capacity from 2021-2023, down 12 points from 42 percent from 2000 to 2003. However, another recent study is showing that those weekly attendance numbers may be even bleaker than they first appeared. Devin Pope, a researcher at the University of Chicago, decided to utilize geodata from 2 million cellphones to uncover the religious service attendance of Americans in 2019.

What Pope found was that 73 percent of Americans go into a place of worship at least once a year. Pope’s data also revealed that far less Americans were attending services weekly than reported, showing up as only around five percent according to Pope. Pope also determined that frequent religious service attenders were less likely to enter places such as strip clubs, casinos, or liquor stores. He also found that nonfrequent religious service attenders are less likely to attend services during poor weather, such as the rain or cold.

Of course, the geodata does have its limitations, with people possibly leaving their phones off or turning off location services while at places of worship. Yet Pope also analyzed data from Americans at other venues such as amusement parks and compared those recorded numbers with the numbers determined by geodata and found it as a reliable, if not completely accurate, prediction of the numbers. The Daily Article theorized on why so many Americans would misrepresent their attendance, writing, “Religiosity still equates to cultural, moral, and traditional values in our society. But religiosity is not enough to meet the challenges we face today.” The Daily Citizen lamented the data as well. “People don’t go to church for all kinds of reasons, from conceit to bitterness, to ignorance and laziness,” asserted DC. “Virtual church has afforded people an illusion of being connected to a church body, but it’s distant and incomplete. Sitting in a pew isn’t a panacea to all your problems, but church holds the possibility of not only changing this life – but also the next. Imagine the positive cultural revolution that would occur if as many people went to church as said they did. That may not be enough, but it would be a very good start.”