AMANDA REPORTS: For First Time in Decades, Men Lead Women in Church Attendance
(TWO-MINUTE READ) — Men, especially young Gen Zers and Millennials, are reversing a long-established attendance pattern by surpassing women in church participation, according to a new analysis by the Barna Group.
The analysis by the Fort Worth, Texas-based Barna Group is entitled “New Research on Church Attendance: Decline of Women or the Rise of Men” and it discloses that “men are significantly out-pacing women in church attendance since the Pandemic, reversing a long-standing trend in Barna’s decades of tracking. The 2025 gender gap is the largest recorded so far (43 percent for men vs. 36 percent among women).”
The role reversal was dramatically highlighted by Barna’s finding that “among parents of kids under 18, married dads have the highest show-up rate at church compared to all other parents. Only one in four single moms (24 percent) attend church weekly — significantly trailing other married moms and dads.”
The emerging pattern is likely to have multiple rippling effects throughout American society, but most immediately upon American church leaders because these “new patterns of participation and disengagement among key groups … may reshape the fabric of church life in the years to come,” Barna said.
“For decades, women have outnumbered men in church attendance and have often led the way in spiritual participation. But a significant shift is occurring in American Christianity that demands attention: Women — particularly younger women — are attending church less frequently than men. This reversal isn’t just a numerical milestone; it signals a broader cultural and spiritual turning point,” Barna continued.
Reasons offered for the lower church participation by women vary such as pursuance of careers by more young women and raising their children as single moms. Others involve increased paid or unpaid responsibilities already vying for their time, or a sense of decline in options for women to participate or lead at church, and conflicting cultural shifts.
While responses were gathered from singles and marrieds, showing both men and women with or without children experience challenges affecting church engagement, the study indicated a particular disparity in attendance by single moms.
Interviews conducted online and via telephone span across the country over a 25-year period concluded in July 2025. Through the interviews, random samples were collected from adult participants of various ages and backgrounds.
(Screenshot from Barna Group website.)
Patterns in church participation showed a reversal over the past 25 years in attendance where women led the household in spiritual growth and church activity. Now, research tells a different story where more men, 43 percent, and fewer women, 36 percent, reported attending church on a weekly basis.
Additional factors the report addresses relate not only to the current but growing disengagement of women. With the backing off from church involvement, especially by women in multiple generations, interviews reveal married fathers are leading in church involvement, while single moms are participating less at 39 percent and single dads at 44 percent.
Barna released its latest analysis in an effort to help church leaders better understand what is happening in their congregations’ attendance patterns and what they should do in response.
Barna Group describes itself as the “go-to source for insights about faith and culture, leadership and vocation, and generations. Barna Group has carefully and strategically tracked the role of faith in America, developing one of the nation’s most comprehensive databases of spiritual indicators.”
The news from Barna Group about growing attendance by men follows a Lifeway Research study released earlier this year which found that 52 percent of U.S. Protestant congregations have experienced growth of at least four percent in the first two years after the official end of the Covid Pandemic in 2022.
Among the remaining 48 percent, most, 33 percent, have neither gained nor lost attendance, while 15 percent declined by at least four percent, according to Lifeway.
“Clearly, the last two years of attendance growth was aided by people returning to regular attendance after being away since the start of the pandemic,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.
“Most pastors wish they had returned earlier, but their attendance is a source of optimism, though future growth will need to come from brand new contacts,” he said.
Amanda Hughes is a HillFaith contributing writer.