How has the UK evangelical church changed since the Covid pandemic?

The average church we surveyed saw their Sunday attendance increase by 13% since January 2020. This is actually an underestimate of what’s happening across the UK. That’s because larger churches have grown while smaller churches have shrunk, which means that the overall attendance change across all the churches surveyed was 22%, with larger churches seeing significant growth disproportionately contributing to that number.

The smallest quarter of churches surveyed, those with fewer than 47 adults and children, had seen their regular attendance dip by 15%, while the quarter of churches with the largest congregations (more than 165) had grown by 21%.

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Confirming a trend which we expected to find, attendance frequency at church has dropped. In 2020 90% of respondents attended weekly; this has dropped to 78% in 2025. However, most people who no longer attend weekly still come three times a month. This means that for every 100 people in a church service on a Sunday in January 2020, only 94 are there on any given Sunday in 2025. The growth in people regularly attending for the average church is actually 20% in the past five years.

The differing experience for large and small churches is also reflected in how they have fared in terms of volunteering and giving income – which is likely connected to declining participation. 

One of the reported trends for churches following the Covid period was that as they returned to meeting in person volunteering did not return to the levels it was at before 2020. Our findings did not match these reports. Instead it was a very mixed picture; 40% of church leaders said volunteering was up; 30% said it was down. When individuals were asked about their own volunteering, a similar picture emerged, albeit with nearly half of respondents saying it was about the same. 

This volunteering is a significant feature of church life, and has a real impact on a church’s role in their community. With the average respondent volunteering 13 hours a month, if this is valued at the rate of the Living Wage, the average church benefits from just under £250,000 of volunteer time each year. 

Only around 15% of individuals had reduced their giving since 2020. For most churches any increase had been below the rate of inflation – only a third of churches had seen sufficient increase to keep up or exceed rising costs. Unsurprisingly, larger churches which had seen increased attendance were much more likely to say their giving had increased, while 10% of the smallest churches had seen significant decline in giving. 

Churches are seeing twice as many people making first-time commitments to following Jesus than in 2021, and more people approaching churches and exploring the Christian faith – and in this area smaller churches are seeing salvation at a comparable rate to large churches.

This reinforces findings from other research including the Bible Society’s The Quiet Revival report that we are in a new spiritual moment – and their research suggests that young men in particular are coming to faith.

We also found that people are less likely to report barriers to sharing their faith, with reductions in every listed reason since we asked this question in 2021 – many more people now say they face no barriers, although curiously there was an increase in people citing ​‘other’ in their response.

In response to the research, Gavin Calver, CEO of the Evangelical Alliance commented: ​“The last five years have significantly impacted the evangelical church in the UK. What I’m seeing as I travel around the country are churches that are adapting well to the landscape, serving their communities wholeheartedly and growing numerically as they confidently share the hope of Jesus with those around them. 

“There’s an openness to the Christian faith, especially among young people, which is reflected in our new Changing Church report. The next few years may well be even more dramatic in this time of spiritual openness.”

The changes to church life we are witnessing are not evenly distributed, and beyond the findings of this research more is needed to understand how different denominations are faring, how churches in different parts of the country are growing or declining. What is clear is that in the UK people are coming to know Jesus as His good news is confidently shared. It is an encouragement for us to continue to follow Him, and help others come to know Him.