ArticleBlog | How are Encountering God? The brutal facts
How are Encountering God? The brutal facts
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 26.12.23
Let me start with the bad news… Right now in the UK, 95% of young people in the UK do not go to church.1 Almost half, 48% of our churches have fewer than five under 16-year-olds.2 The decline in church attendance among under-16-year-olds is much faster than the decline among all other generations, with the number reported in average child Sunday attendance having decreased by 20% over the last five years, compared to a 12% decline in average adult Sunday attendance.3 We also know that from 1990-2020, the UK church is thought to have lost 1.1 million children from its congregations.4
FROM 1990-2020, THE UK CHURCH IS THOUGHT TO HAVE LOST 1.1 MILLION CHILDREN FROM ITS CONGREGATIONS
If you’re thinking that all this paints a pretty bleak picture, you’re right. The UK is now a truly post-Christian, ever-increasingly secular nation, as demonstrated by the fact that the single fastest growing religious group of our time are those who tick the box next to the word ‘None’ in national surveys: as in, ‘I have no religious belief or affiliation.’ In fact, in the UK, this group has risen from just 3% in 1963 to 44.7% today,5 and climbed to nearly two-thirds among adults aged 25 and under.6
