More people are attending church than before the pandemic

Churches are seeing twice as many people commit to following Jesus as in 2021, our latest Changing Church survey reveals.

Changing Church 2025 explores the state of the UK evangelical Church five years on from the Covid pandemic. We have also heard stories from evangelical churches of every size, shape and tradition that something seemingly different is happening. People are exploring faith and finding Jesus. We wanted to find out more about what churches are experiencing and help other churches have confidence in sharing Jesus.

Danny Webster, our head of advocacy and research lead, said: “The research demonstrates that churches have changed since they were forced to close in the pandemic. For larger churches, they are growing and smaller churches are struggling, but churches of all sizes are seeing people join them.

“While we found that habits of engaging with churches and church activities had changed, for example, people attend slightly less frequently, in most areas, church life has bounced back since the Covid shutdown.

“One key trend identified in the research is the different experience for large and small churches; this has an inevitable knock-on effect, so smaller churches are more likely to report struggles with income and volunteering.”

Gavin Calver, CEO of Evangelical Alliance, said of the research: “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."

Key findings from the research:

1. Churches reported an average increase in attendance of 13% since January 2020 (before the Covid pandemic).

1. Churches reported twice as many people making first-time commitments to follow Jesus as when surveyed in 2021.

1. Volunteers in the average church contribute nearly £250,000 worth of time each year.

1. While most churches have seen an increase in giving income, for only one in five churches is this enough to keep pace with inflation.

1. Wellbeing of church leaders has improved since 2021, the key challenges leaders identified in their work related to leadership, staff and volunteers remain.