Latest: Church of England Attendance Grows Fifth Year in a Row as Adult Baptisms Rise

The Church of England grew again in 2025 — for the fifth year in a row. Statistics for Mission 2025, published on 13 November 2026, show the worshipping community rose 1.5% to 1.03 million people, average Sunday attendance reached 590,000, and adult baptisms climbed to 9,900, a figure the report says is quite possibly higher than they have ever been.

Picture a parish church on a cold Sunday morning in January. Five years ago the pews were thin, the heating was off, and the vicar wondered if the congregation would ever come back. Now the same church is turning people away at Easter, the font is busy again, and the adults lining up for baptism are not the usual suspects. That is the story these numbers are telling.

Church of England Attendance 2025: Five Years of Growth in a Row

The headline figures are modest in size but remarkable in their consistency. All-age average weekly attendance reached 707,000 in 2025, up 0.8%, or about 6,000 more people each week. Average Sunday attendance rose 1.6% to 590,000, around 9,000 more people in the pews on a typical Sunday.

What makes this run historic is not the size of any single year's rise. It is the fact that attendance on Sundays and across the week have both risen five years running — the first time that has happened since current records began. After decades of decline, five straight years in the same direction is not a blip. It is a pattern.

The growth is showing up in the places that measure the health of a parish best. The worshipping community — the people who attend regularly, not just at Christmas — passed a million for the first time in the current series, reaching 1.03 million. That is a number the Church of England has not been able to report in years.

Adult Baptisms Rise to 9,900 in the Church of England

The most striking figure in the whole report is the one about adults choosing baptism. Adult baptisms reached 9,900 in 2025, up by more than 1,000 for the second year running and up by a third on the year before. The report's own wording is careful but electric: adult baptisms are quite possibly higher than they have ever been.

Total baptisms stood at 59,300. Infant baptisms, for babies under one, fell to 24,600, more than halved since 2019. But every age category above five increased. The picture is clear: fewer babies are being baptised by their parents, and more adults are choosing baptism for themselves. That shift is the heart of the quiet revival.

It fits what we have seen elsewhere in Britain this year. In the summer, 550 people were baptised in the freezing North Sea at Bridlington, as reported in Latest: 550 Baptized in Freezing North Sea as UK Revival Accelerates. And in Manchester, more than 800 people walked forward for Christ at Franklin Graham's God Loves You Tour, as reported in Franklin Graham Sees Pockets of Revival After 800 Turn to Christ in Manchester.

Easter and Christmas Attendance: The Festival Surge

The strongest growth came at the festivals, where the Church has always met the most people. Easter attendance reached 1.03 million, up 7.6% on the previous year. Christmas attendance hit 1.96 million, up 5.2%. Nearly two million people spent part of Christmas Day in a Church of England service.

Cathedrals are feeling it too. Cathedral Statistics 2025 show Sunday attendance up notably among adults, rising 8% against 2024. The great buildings that were once described as museums with a service attached are filling again, and the growth is coming from adults, not just tourists.

The Rt Revd Paul Davies, Bishop of Dorking, captured the mood at the Diocese of Guildford Church Growth Conference on 14 October 2026. "I have never been so excited in my 30 years of ministry by the growing number of baptisms and confirmations. God is at work in our Diocese in an incredibly powerful way."

The Honest Caveat: Church of England Attendance Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

None of this means the Church of England has recovered. The worshipping community of 1.03 million is still 7.9% below its 2019 level. Adult weekly attendance of 613,000 sits 17% below where it was before the pandemic. Five years of growth have not yet undone the damage of the Covid years, when churches closed and many older worshippers never returned.

That caveat matters, because it keeps the story honest. This is not a triumphant return to the 1950s. It is a slow, steady climb out of a deep hole, driven by new people rather than returning ones. The attendence figures are encouraging precisely because they are honest about how far there is still to go.

What Is Driving the Quiet Revival in the UK?

The most likely answer is the one we have been reporting all year: young adults. Gen Z is turning up in churches in numbers nobody predicted, and the data keeps confirming it. UK church leaders gathered this autumn to talk about exactly that shift, as reported in "Full-Fat Faith": UK Church Leaders Gather as Gen Z Fuels Five Years of Church Growth.

Whether the UK church revival is real is a question we asked earlier this year, and the latest data gives the clearest answer yet, as reported in Is the UK Church Revival Real? What the Latest Data Actually Shows. The revival is real, but it is quiet, young, and adult-led — and it is being measured in baptisms as much as in Sunday seats.

There is also a christain generation coming of age that never knew the old battles. They are not returning to a church they left. They are walking into one for the first time, and they are asking to be baptised because they believe, not because it is expected of them.

What Happens Next for the Church of England

The next test comes quickly. King Charles is due to inaugurate the Church of England's General Synod on 17 November, as reported in Latest: King Charles to Inaugurate Church of England General Synod on November 17. The bishops, clergy and lay members gathering in London will be reading these same figures and asking the same question: how do you build on five years of growth without breaking what is working?

For now, the numbers speak for themselves. A million regular worshippers. Nearly ten thousand adult baptisms, quite possibly more than ever before. Two million people at Christmas. The Church of England is growing again — and the most interesting question is no longer whether the revival is real, but how far it will go.