Four in 10 Americans attended church in week before Christmas

Even in the midst of the Christmas season, churches in the US are failing to draw a substantial crowd.

Gallup today released a poll confirming that less than half of Americans (39%) have visited a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other religious observance service in the last seven days.

This was despite 56% of Americans saying in the same poll that religion was "very important" to their everyday lives.

"This measure of church attendance is based on individuals' assessments of their own behaviour and is not always directly related to actual attendance on a weekly basis," Gallup noted.

"Various studies over the years have suggested that Americans may over-report their attendance at religious services when compared with other objective measures of their actual attendance."

The statistics are in line with the general trends that have existed since recording of these numbers began. Keep reading