Attendance at church drops, belief in God level

Throughout the pandemic, there has been a sharp decline in Canadians attending religious services despite only a slight drop in their belief in God, a new survey has found.

The Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and Leger recently released findings from a survey that looked into how Canadians kept their faith during the pandemic when many places of worship have had to close their doors or severely limit capacity to comply with public health rules. The survey was conducted through a web panel between Nov. 19 to 21, with 1,565 Canadians 18 years of age or older. The results of the survey are compared to a similar pre-pandemic survey of 2,215 Canadians that was conducted in May 2019.

The most significant finding of the 2021 survey is the decrease in Canadians attending religious services since the pandemic began. Respondents who said they never attend services increased from 30 per cent prepandemic to 67 per cent. The survey also found that 60.5 per cent of Canadians who say they strongly believe in God never or rarely attended a religious service since the beginning of the pandemic.

Although attendance has dropped, the survey found that one-third of respondents still say religion is important in their lives. The survey found only a slight decrease in the belief in God — down six per cent from May 2019 to November 2021.

Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of ACS, said the drop in attendance reveals that Canadians have been able to separate their religious beliefs and the physical act of attending church service.

“It is possible that people made recourse to virtual platforms for attending religious services,” Jedwab said in an email. “Still, it speaks to the personal side of religious conviction as opposed to the need for the group or communal feeling.”

While all provinces saw declines in the number of people attending religious services, Quebec saw the biggest drop, with people attending church often and occasionally falling from 33 per cent to eight per cent. Francophones have the lowest rate of attendance — 91 per cent said they have rarely or never attended religious services since the beginning of the pandemic.

The survey also points to interesting trends in religious beliefs within different populations. Belief in God is lower among men (50 per cent) than women (57 per cent). Younger people also believe less, only 41 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 say they believe compared to 64 per cent of those 55 years of age or older.

Jedwab said younger people are less likely to believe in God because they are still forming their own ideas about religion.