The case of the phantom Episcopalians

Article Abstract:

Hadaway and his associates' verdict that church attendance rates in the US are grossly overestimated is flawed. They made a survey of Protestant churches in Ashtabula County, OH, and from 18 Catholic churches across the US. They estimated the Protestant population from their 1992 survey and the 1990 census count. They asked if respondents have been to church in the last seven days, of which 35.8% of Protestant respondents said yes. Their estimate of 19.6% average weekly attendance rates were then based on denominational yearbooks, church visits and counting cars in parking lots.

Surveys, Episcopalians

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Overreporting church attendance in America: evidence that demands the same verdict

Article Abstract:

Real evidence exist to show that there is a big difference between the actual weekly church attendance rates in the US and what is being reported in the surveys. It is more realistic to speculate that one out of four persons go to church every week rather than two out of five persons. It could be that the usual survey items bias the reporting of church attendance. These rates raise questions about the religiousness of Americans. It should also not be construed that overestimating attendance rates happens in the US only, as it occurs also in Canada and the UK.

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When surveys lie and people tell the truth: how surveys oversample church attenders

Article Abstract:

Hadaway and his associates argue that the actual church attendance rates is only half of what is truly reported in surveys. This could be remedied by using theoretically grounded weighting methods instead of telephone polls which oversample churchgoers. Social desirability may also cause errors but it would be difficult for researchers to detect accurate correlations from erroneous ones. It could also be true that mistakes in methodology and records are the real reason instead of this bias.

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