Age and Religious Participation
The general pattern of religious participation is that the older a person is, the more
likely they are to attend religious services.
However, there is one partial exception, with people aged under 15 years old
generally being more likely to attend church than anyone.
This may be because they have less choice in the matter and are made to go
by their parents.
For all age groups apart from the elderly, there is an ongoing fall in
church attendance and the fall is sharpest among the young.
Now, half of all English churches have
no-one under the age of 20 attending. Reasons for
age differences
Voas and Crockett (2005) suggest
three possible explanations for age
differences in religiosity.
Beliefs - Age
and Religious 1. The ‘ageing’ effect
Participation This is the view that people turn to religion as they get older. As we
However… approach death, we ‘naturally’ become more concerned about
spiritual matters and the afterlife, repentance of past misdeeds etc.
Voas and Crockett found little evidence for the first two explanations.
Instead, they argue that Secularisation is the main reason why younger
people are less religious than older people.
They found that in each succeeding generation, only half as many 2. The ‘cohort’ effect
people are religious compared with the generation before it.
People born during a particular period may be more or less likely to be religious
due to particular events they lived through, such as war or rapid social changes.
Arweck and Beckford (2013) describe this to be the ‘virtual collapse of
religious socialisation’.
Parents of the same faith have only a 50/50 chance of raising their child to be a
churchgoer as an adult. 3. Secularisation
We are therefore likely to see a steadily ageing population of churchgoers. As religion declines in importance, each generation
becomes less religious than the one before it.
The general pattern of religious participation is that the older a person is, the more
likely they are to attend religious services.
However, there is one partial exception, with people aged under 15 years old
generally being more likely to attend church than anyone.
This may be because they have less choice in the matter and are made to go
by their parents.
For all age groups apart from the elderly, there is an ongoing fall in
church attendance and the fall is sharpest among the young.
Now, half of all English churches have
no-one under the age of 20 attending. Reasons for
age differences
Voas and Crockett (2005) suggest
three possible explanations for age
differences in religiosity.
Beliefs - Age
and Religious 1. The ‘ageing’ effect
Participation This is the view that people turn to religion as they get older. As we
However… approach death, we ‘naturally’ become more concerned about
spiritual matters and the afterlife, repentance of past misdeeds etc.
Voas and Crockett found little evidence for the first two explanations.
Instead, they argue that Secularisation is the main reason why younger
people are less religious than older people.
They found that in each succeeding generation, only half as many 2. The ‘cohort’ effect
people are religious compared with the generation before it.
People born during a particular period may be more or less likely to be religious
due to particular events they lived through, such as war or rapid social changes.
Arweck and Beckford (2013) describe this to be the ‘virtual collapse of
religious socialisation’.
Parents of the same faith have only a 50/50 chance of raising their child to be a
churchgoer as an adult. 3. Secularisation
We are therefore likely to see a steadily ageing population of churchgoers. As religion declines in importance, each generation
becomes less religious than the one before it.
