The dechurched were formally identified in the 1990s.

As statistics became available, it dawned on church leaders what others had known for decades – attendance was dropping. Many Christians got turned off church, and stopped going.

The first chart shows the Unaffiliated in the USA, which somewhat reflects the dechurched.

After all, Christianity is the major religion in the USA, and the percentage of church attendees is dropping as the Unaffiliated grows.

This site travels around the dechurched phenomena, but let’s add one more intriguing statistic – the demosqued.

Similar trends are underway in the world’s second largest faith – that’s right – Islam. The demosqued are growing.

This chart shows the demosqued in The Netherlands. Roughly speaking, both the church and the mosque are losing 10 percent of their attendees each decade, or one percent per annum apiece.

That’s kind of interesting.

There might be parallel influences at work here.

Perhaps the dechurched and the demosqued communities have similar forces shaping them. This book, The Bishop, the Mullah, and the Smartphone: the journey of two religions into the digital age, goes into some depth on this trend.

We hope you enjoy this site as it refreshes from its earlier version. Read the history in the About page.  Understanding what’s going on might make the turbulent religious worlds of 2019 more understandable.