Frequent church attendance has fallen to 15 per cent of Australians, according to an Australian Community Survey (ACS), which also shows religious Australians have higher levels of life satisfaction than others.
Attending church “frequently,” that once a month or more, is recorded in yearly ACS results as
- 2022: 15 per cent
- 2021: 21 per cent
- 2020: 16 per cent
- 2019: 22 per cent
- 2018: 20 per cent
- 2016: 18 per cent
Previously the 2020 figure was regarded as covid affected. But in light of this year’s figure, it possibly forms part of an ongoing decline.
The 2022 ACS results also indicate that spirituality or religiousness is positively linked with wellbeing. For example, Australians who identify as ‘Christian’ or ‘Religious and Spiritual’ or those who attend religious services have higher levels of life satisfaction on average than other Australians. They are also more satisfied with their communities.
The ACS is conducted by NCLS Research which also runs the five-yearly National Church Life Survey. The ACS sample of around 3,090 persons (in 2022) was representative of the adult population on age, gender and location.
“More research is needed to disentangle the factors that might drive the difference that faith practices make,” NCLS Research Director, Dr Ruth Powell, said “But positive psychological behaviours such as gratitude, mindfulness and living in the moment, are frequently expressed in healthy faith communities.”
“We know from other research that people who are more hopeful and optimistic about the future are more resilient to negative shocks, both in terms of their behaviour and their life satisfaction,” noted Dr Powell. “People with a worldview informed by their faith can draw from these spiritual resources.”
On the negative side, the 2022 ACS also explored stress in the lives of Australians. Sources of stress include health concerns (27%), family relationships (24%), worry over loss of household income (17%) and isolation and loneliness (15%). Around 12% of respondents said they experienced very high levels of stress in the month before the survey.
“The risk of focusing on the average or the majority when looking at life satisfaction and wellbeing is that we overlook those who are not doing so well.” says Dr Powell. “People of faith can seek help and also respond to those under stress, both as individuals and as collective faith communities.”
Note: the NCLS publised an error guide that shows the maximum margin of error at a 95% level of confidence is 2.8% for the 2016 to 2021 ACS, and 1.8%. for 2022 because the sample size increased from 1258 to 3090.