![[OC] Changes in church membership vs growth in adjacent social sectors since 2000](https://preview.redd.it/p88ghwc7zo1h1.png?auto=webp&s=a0c70e25ae9ee66db549d8c950ad883e41c6b800)
[OC] Changes in church membership vs growth in adjacent social sectors since 2000
Church membership among Americans fell from 69% to 43% over this period (Gallup), while several unrelated sectors experienced large growth. Full Article Here
• Pickleball participation: +19,800%
• Podcast adoption: +2,350%
• Pet industry spending: +882%
• Therapy utilization: +185%
• Church membership: -38%
These variables were selected because they each involve places people increasingly direct time, money, identity, or community participation.
This is not intended as a causal argument. The growth of these sectors is not presented as a consequence of church decline.
The comparison is more about observing broad cultural shifts and asking whether people increasingly build rituals, communities, and identities through different institutions than in previous decades.
Curious what people think.
Data sources:
Church membership: Gallup
Pickleball participation: SFIA participation reports
Podcast adoption: Edison Research Infinite Dial
Pet industry spending: American Pet Products Association (APPA)
Therapy utilization: SAMHSA / National Survey on Drug Use and Health
Built using Python, matplotlib, NumPy, and ffmpeg.
Animation: custom bar-chart race with yearly interpolation and indexed comparison methodology.