For the first time in roughly a quarter-century, the typical U.S. congregation is seeing a few more people in the pews. A new national study finds median in-person worship attendance climbed to about 70 people in 2025, up from a COVID-era low and reversing a long-running slide. The gains are clustered in larger churches and certain traditions, while many smaller congregations are still shrinking. Religious leaders and researchers are calling it a moment of cautious optimism, not a roaring revival.
What the report found
The Faith Communities Today project surveyed 7,453 congregations between September and December 2025 and reports that median weekend in-person attendance rose to 70. That is up from a pandemic low of 45 and slightly above the 2020 median of 65. The same study notes rebounds in volunteer participation and congregational income, along with signs of improved clergy well-being, according to the research team.
Those topline findings appear in a national report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, which reported the results of the survey.
Growth is uneven across traditions and sizes
The apparent rebound is hardly across the board. Roughly 43% of congregations said they grew by at least 5% over the period, while about 46% reported declines of at least 5%. The rest held steady, underscoring how fragile the recovery is.
Catholic and Orthodox congregations reported the largest median attendance, at about 200 people. Evangelical congregations reported around 75, and mainline Protestant churches about 50. Researchers told reporters they double-checked the numbers and urged caution in how they are interpreted. One lead investigator admitted, “we were pretty surprised when we saw the 2025 data,” according to Religion News Service.
Why size matters
The study finds that larger congregations are disproportionately likely to be growing, while smaller churches are more likely to be shrinking. That helps explain how the national median can tick up even as many communities continue to lose people.
The authors caution that part of the shift in median size reflects internal reshuffling of where worshippers attend and, in some places, outright closures, rather than a sweeping nationwide revival. Coverage from denominational and religion outlets has echoed that theme, emphasizing how regional and tradition-specific the rebound really is. Baptist News Global summarized the size patterns and the related financial pressures in its analysis.
New money and technology
The financial picture has shifted alongside attendance. Median reported congregational income rose to about $205,000 in 2025, and online giving has become a major revenue stream. The Faith Communities Today questionnaire notes that electronic, ACH and online giving are now widely used and that around 40% of regular monthly giving comes through online channels for congregations that accept it.
Researchers say those technical and financial changes have helped some congregations stabilize after the pandemic shock. The survey instruments and frequency tables are available in the project’s public materials, and the Project questionnaire and frequencies provide the item-level figures behind the topline trends.
What this means locally
For many pastors and small-church leaders, the numbers land somewhere between relief and reality check. The data suggest that stability or modest growth is possible, yet a large share of congregations still face shrinking attendance alongside rising building and insurance costs.
The study points to concrete shifts on the ground. More hybrid worship, routine use of online giving and renewed volunteer recruitment are among the practical levers congregations are using to adapt. Clergy morale and retention have also improved compared with the worst of the pandemic years, which may help some churches hold on to the modest gains they are seeing.
Researchers and religious leaders alike stress that this is a season of recalibration, not a return to past peaks. As one co-director put it, “the headline finding is cautious optimism,” a judgment that shows up repeatedly in coverage of the new report. Religion News Service captured that framing at the conference where the research team presented the findings.
