New survey finds US synagogue membership stable as number of church goers plummets

While the percentage of US adults who belong to a church has plunged by 20 percentage points over the past two decades, hitting a low of 50% last year, synagogue membership in the country has remained stable, a new Gallup poll finds.

Gallup says church membership was 70% in 1999 — and close to or higher than that figure for most of the 20th century. Since 1999, the figure has fallen steadily, while the percentage of US adults with no religious affiliation has jumped from 8% to 19%.

Among Americans identifying with a particular religion, there was a sharp drop in church membership among Catholics — dropping from 76% to 63% over the past two decades as the church was buffeted by clergy sex-abuse scandals. Membership among Protestants dropped from 73% to 67% percent over the same period.

At the same time, the data shows that synagogue membership has remained in the mid- to low 50% range over the past two decades.

— with AP