90% of U.S. Protestant pastors say Easter is typically one of their highest-attended worship services of the year.
More than half of U.S. Protestant pastors (52%) identify Easter as the day their church typically has its highest attendance for worship services, statistically unchanged from the 55% who said the same in 2011. Another 30% say Easter is the second most attended day at their congregation, while 8% identify it as the third highest-attendance worship service. In total, 90% of pastors point to Easter as one of their three most attended services. Christmas (81%) and Mother’s Day (51%) are the other days during the year that typically draw the largest numbers for churches.
“On any given Sunday, a large minority of a congregation may not be present for worship. Easter is the day when the most church members get to church—and for a good reason: No other theme is as profound to a Christian than celebrating that they died with Christ and as Jesus was raised to life, so too Christians are now alive to God in Christ Jesus.” - Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research
66% of Americans say the biblical accounts of Jesus’ physical resurrection, what Christians celebrate on Easter, are completely accurate.
The most recent State of Theology study found 2 in 3 Americans believe Easter celebrates a historical event. Two-thirds of U.S. adults (66%) say the biblical accounts of the physical resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate.
The percentage that affirms the bodily resurrection of Jesus as described in the Bible is unchanged since 2018 and within two percentage points of where it has been since the first State of Theology in 2014.
26% of Americans say they observe Lent, a traditional 40-day window of fasting that ends the week before Easter.
Three in 4 Americans (74%) say they do not typically observe Lent, while 26% participate. The 26% who observe Lent is statistically unchanged from the 24% who said the same in a 2016 Lifeway Research study.
Catholics (59%) and Hispanics (39%) are among the most likely to say they participate in Lent. Those who rarely or never attend a religious service are the most likely to ignore Lent (89%).