Religious Worship Attendance in America: Evidence from Cellphone Data

Abstract

Anonymized cellphone-location data finds only ~5% of Americans actually attend religious services in a given week, despite 22% reporting that they do. Latter-day Saints are the most regular churchgoers in the U.S. — more consistent than Catholics, despite there being roughly 14× as many Catholics. Typical LDS services run about 115 minutes, tied with Orthodox Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses. Latter-day Saints also show the lowest cellphone-observed visits to tobacco shops, liquor stores, and strip clubs (1.7%). Utah ranks highest of any state for the alignment between stated religious identity and observed behavior.

Findings for Latter-day Saints

• Only ~5% of Americans actually attend religious services in a given week, despite 22% reporting that they do.
• Latter-day Saints are the most regular churchgoers in the U.S. — more consistent than Catholics despite ~14× the Catholic population.
• Typical LDS services run ~115 minutes (tied with Orthodox Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses).
• Latter-day Saints show the lowest cellphone-observed visits to tobacco shops, liquor stores, and strip clubs (1.7%).
• Utah ranks highest of any state for alignment between stated religious identity and observed behavior.

Limitations in methodology

Cellphone-location data has coverage gaps (low-income populations, phone-off behavior); inference of "religious attendance" from location requires modeling assumptions.

Related studies

• 2025religious-practicepew

  Pew Study: Latter-day Saints Among the Most Religiously Active

• 2012pewdemographics

  Mormons in America: Beliefs and Practices

Cite this study

Pope, D. G. (2024). Religious Worship Attendance in America: Evidence from Cellphone Data. NBER Working Paper (Devin G. Pope). https://www.nber.org/papers/w32127

Devin G. Pope. "Religious Worship Attendance in America: Evidence from Cellphone Data." NBER Working Paper (Devin G. Pope), 2024. https://www.nber.org/papers/w32127.

@article{pope_religious_worship_attendance_cellphone_2024,
  title = {Religious Worship Attendance in America: Evidence from Cellphone Data},
  author = {Devin G. Pope},
  year = {2024},
  journal = {NBER Working Paper (Devin G. Pope)},
  url = {https://www.nber.org/papers/w32127},
}