The Resilient Church: affiliation, attendance and size in Australia

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Brief:

This paper provides evidence about trends in religious affiliation, church attendance, number, locality and size of local churches.

Description:

Church vitality can be assessed in many ways. Counting numbers of people and churches have their place as one type of metric of church health. These estimates of church growth and decline sit alongside measures of qualities of healthy church life including things like spiritual growth, belonging, inclusion, reaching out in word and deed, in addition to  having a vision, an innovative and empowering leadership culture. This paper draws on national Australian data sources from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and NCLS Research to provide evidence about trends in religious affiliation, church attendance, number, locality and size of local churches. It shows that while the Church, as a whole, has declined in size, there are signs of resilience and even some growth.

Authors: Ruth Powell,  Sam Sterland and Miriam Pepper.

Citation: 

Powell, R., Sterland, S. and Pepper, M. (2020). The Resilient Church: affiliation, attendance and size in Australia. NCLS Occasional Paper 43. NCLS Research: Sydney.