How Many Americans Really Attend Church Each Week?

As you remember during the 2004 Annual Meeting we talked about the role of social sciences in catechecial ministry. Continuing this line of discussion I think Dave Olson's analysis of church attendance is very interesting.

Dave Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, surveying only Christian churches (i.e., evangelical, mainline, and Catholic) says the percentage of Americans regularly attending church is 18.7%.

Olson has collected his findings in an eye-opening slide-show entitled Twelve Surprising Facts about the US Church.

Here is the direct link to the chart that shows the percentage of population attending a Catholic Church on any given weekend in 2000. It seems to me that Olson's analysis raise some good questions for catechetical ministry.