Black and Hispanic Churchgoers Concerned About Safety of In-Person Services

The Story: A new survey finds significant racial and ethnic differences in the perceived safety of attending religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Background: According the survey conducted by Pew Research in mid-July, nearly three-quarters of white adults (72 percent) who report they regularly attend religious services say they are “very” or “somewhat” confident they could safely attend in-person services right now at their regular house of worship without spreading or catching the coronavirus. By contrast, around half of black (49 percent) and Hispanic (51 percent) Americans who are similarly observant express such confidence. The other half of black and Hispanic attenders say they are “not too” or “not at all” confident they could safely go to in-person religious services right now without spreading or catching the virus.

(In this survey, regular religious service attenders are defined as those who said in a 2019 survey that they typically attend services at least once or twice a month or say in the new survey that they attended in-person services in the last month.)

Black and Hispanic worshippers also are less likely than their white counterparts to say they have actually gone to church or another house of worship recently. About one in five black adults (19 percent) who typically attend religious services at least monthly (according to the 2019 survey) say they have gone to in-person services in the past month, and one-in-four Hispanic worshippers (24 percent) report having done so. By comparison, 39 percent of white worshippers say they attended in-person services in the last month.

Black and Hispanic attenders are far more likely than white attenders to say their own congregation should be closed for in-person services: About four-in-ten Black (42 percent) and Hispanic attenders (37 percent) say this, compared with 21 percent of white attenders. Among white attenders, a majority (63 percent) think their congregation should be open for in-person religious services with modifications (such as social distancing, mask requirements or limited attendance), while much fewer black (44 percent) and Hispanic (51 percent) attenders say this is the right option for their congregations. Read More