Do weekly worship attenders give more? Yes!
Religious donors give more: people who attend worship regularly are more generous than people who do not. While this isn’t a new finding, it’s always useful to see more numbers.
Before we get deep in the weeds, here’s the good news, the bad news and a quote from angels.
Good news: People of faith give more
On average, people who worship regularly at their church, mosque, synagogue, temple and so on donate more than people who do not have the same religious practice. This generosity includes donations to all causes, not just to their religious congregations.
Terrifically good news! People of faith make a tangible difference in their communities through their generosity.
Bad news: Fewer people worship weekly
The General Social Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating reported that fewer Canadians attended worship weekly in 2023 compared to 2018.
When adding up all the T3010 data from Canadian churches in that same time period of 2018 to 2023, receipted income didn’t keep up with inflation. Within this aggregate picture, there’s all kinds of churches from closing to expanding and everything in between. Total up the receipted giving from all churches and the growth isn’t keeping up with inflation though.
Quote from angels and wisdom from the magi
Do not be afraid! That’s how angels often begin. It’s almost Epiphany as I’m writing this post. Heading towards the star without knowing the directions exactly has been done before.
If these numbers apply to your church context, it could be tempting to hunker down in survival mode, hanging on tight to those reserve funds. Call a friend instead! Reach out to your denomination, attend the Reimagine Church, Land, Community conference in Halifax in 2026, read Funding Forward by Grace Pomroy.
Do not be afraid! Pray together to seek wisdom, imagination and courage for where your faith community might be headed.
Explanation of trends
Content warning: this gets geeky! Data on religious charitable giving is hard to come by; hang on and I’ll explain as best as I can.
I’ll look at data from two sources:
General Social Survey - Giving, Volunteering and Participating conducted by Statistics Canada in 2018 and 2023
T3010 data - every Canadian charity has to file this report each year. It’s publicly available (my most popular blog post this year is how to look up a charity’s T3010.)
How much do religious donors give? Survey says…
Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey sampled 80,000 people with a 40.9% response rate. This latest survey found a declining rate of weekly religious participation:
In 2018, 13.9% of respondents said they attended religious services every week.
In 2023, 11.2% of respondents said the same.
I do wish Statistics Canada would use monthly attendance as a metric instead of weekly attendance, but I am not in charge. What about giving for regular attenders?
In 2018, the median annual giving was $500 (half gave more, half gave less.)
In 2023, the median annual giving was $570.
While the 2023 giving numbers were higher than the 2018 numbers, the inflation rate was 18.95% in that five year time period (Bank of Canada inflation calculator). The increased median giving wasn’t keeping up with inflation.
Measuring giving is tricky. Average annual giving is much higher than median giving. For weekly attenders:
In 2018, the average annual giving was $1,503
In 2023, the average annual giving was $1,838.
The increase in average annual giving from 2018 to 2023 exceeded the inflation rate. Here’s how I understand these numbers: many donors haven’t increased their giving that much, that’s why the median donation amount is down. However, fewer donors giving more is a trend that I've blogged about previously. That’s why the average donation amount can increase and the median can decrease. There’s a group of (mostly older) donors who are doing the heavy lifting.
For example, if there are 10 people in a congregation giving $10,000 a year and 100 people giving $500 a year, then the median giving is $500 and the average giving is $1,363. If those 10 people increase their giving to $11,000 year and the rest stay at $500, the median stays at $500 and the average increases to $1,454.
Looking at giving using T3010 data
The General Social Survey relied on people reporting on how much they gave. That’s useful for comparison purposes, but if you were measuring French fry consumption, would it be better to ask people how often they ate fries, or measure how many fries were sold at fast food restaurants? The latter, I think.
T3010 data shows total receipted income for Canadian churches. This isn’t a perfect measurement, but it’s not a sample - it’s all churches that are registered charities (and which filled in their T3010 forms correctly!)
For the 2018 reporting year, receipted giving was $4,663,412,146. That’s 4.6 billion dollars given to 25,698 churches.
For the 2023 reporting year, receipted giving was $4,949,638,804.That’s almost 5 billion dollars given to 24,615 churches, a huge sum, but not enough of an increase from 2018 to keep up with inflation.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! Loop back to the quotes from angels now :)
Sources
Statistics Canada. Table 45-10-0038-01 Donor rate and average annual donations, by religious attendance
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/4510003801-eng
T3010 data from Canadian charities - publicly available.