Americans are giving a smaller percentage of their income to churches than they did three decades ago, a new report finds.
Church members donated 2.58 percent of their income to churches in 1999, a drop of 17 percent from 1968 when giving was 3.1 percent of income, reported empty tomb, a Champaign, Ill., organization.
The giving information is based on data from 29 denominations.
Researchers found that member giving as a portion of income to congregational finances – which support local operation costs church – was 2.18 percent, which is on a par with giving levels to that category in the mid-1970s.
Giving as a portion of income to benevolences – which support activities beyond the local congregation – was 0.4 percent, a slight increase from the 1998 level was the lowest recorde3d between 1968 and 1999.
The slight increase meant, at the aggregate level, congregations in the studied denominations gave $42.8 million more to activities such as mission outreach, denominational support and seminary aid in 1999 than they did in 1998.
“The State of Church Giving Through 1999” by John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, the 11th in an annual series, was released Dec. 14.
Among the report’s other findings:
A comparison of eight denominations affiliated with the National Association of Evangelicals and seven tied to the National Council of Churches found that both received a smaller portion of income for total contributions in 1999 than in 1998, on a per-member basis.
Membership as a portion of U.S. population for a set of 37 Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church dropped from 45 percent in 1968 to 39 percent in 1999.
Giving was higher as a portion of income in 1933, in the depth of the Great Depression, than in 1999. (RNS)
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