One's Religiosity religiosity depends on one's socialization, religious affiliation, geographical location, historical location, and life-cycle phase. Thus: (1) if your parents attended religious services weekly when you were a child, the probability of your attending religious services weekly as an adult increases; (2) people who identify with some religions and some denominations attend religious services more frequently than people who identify with other religions and some denominations; (3) attending religious services is more common in some geographical regions than others; (4) in highly economically developed countries, weekly attendance of religious services has declined over the past 60 years (although it increased a little in some places such as Canada in the last few years); and (5) weekly attendance is highest for the youngest and oldest age cohorts, who feel more compelled to attend (the youngest because are they taken by their parents and the oldest because they are closer to illness and death) and who are not compelled to focus on extremely time-consuming activities like higher education, childcare, and paid work.
Correlates of Weekly Church Attendance, Canada
Socialization: About 80% of today's weekly attenders had parents who attended weekly. Religion and denomination: About 60% of fundamentalist Protestants, 25% of Roman Catholics, and 15% of mainline Protestants attend weekly. Region: Atlantic Canadians are nearly twice as likely to attend...