Anglican Communion News Service

Church attendance in Wales per head of population has dropped by half since 1982 according to a new report published by the Bible Society.

A survey of all the congregations in Wales found that half had 25 or fewer people, including children, attending. The majority of the congregations in the country are ageing. The most common size for a Welsh congregation was about 10 people. The proportion of the total Welsh population attending church declined from 14.6 per cent in 1982 to 8.7 per cent in 1995. However, the Church in Wales congregations (Anglicans) report that there has been a slight increase in the size of their congregations in the last five years. The report also found that Churches identifying themselves as Anglo-Catholic or Broad, or Charismatic were growing the most.