Sunday School Statistics (2026): Program Reach, Age-Group Gaps, Volunteer Shortages & Screening
Sunday school statistics for 2026: program reach, age-group offerings, teacher shortages and background-check gaps, with sourced figures and a downloadable dataset.
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Sunday school remains one of the largest volunteer-staffed programs in American congregations, yet the data on it is scattered across older research, denominational reports and fresh surveys. This report pulls the verifiable numbers together: how many people still take part, which age groups churches still serve, where the volunteer pipeline is strained, and how child-safety screening fits in. It is part of our statistics hub for church leaders.
Key takeaways
How many people still attend Sunday school?
Barna's research on children's ministry describes a large but shrinking system. Barna reports that more than 300,000 churches run some form of classroom religious instruction each weekend, reaching roughly 45 million adults and more than 22 million children and youth. Adult participation figures from that series have not been updated publicly in a comparable form, so treat them as a baseline rather than a 2026 count.
Long-run exposure is far higher than weekly attendance suggests. In a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 62% of U.S. adults said they had attended Sunday school, CCD or another religious education program as children, and 28% said they did so for seven or more years. Pew Research Center reports these results in its study of childhood religious education.
Participation drops sharply once young people age out. A 2020 Pew study found that 29% of teens still took part in religious education often or sometimes, and 31% said they rarely did or had stopped; evangelical Protestant teens were the most likely to remain engaged. Pew's teen findings show the gap between initial exposure and ongoing involvement.
Which age groups do churches still serve?
The share of congregations offering Sunday school has eroded most at the two ends of childhood. Barna's comparison of 1997 and 2004 found that the share of churches offering programs for children under two fell from 79% to 73%, and for junior high from 93% to 86%. Among teens, offerings for high schoolers dropped from 86% to 80%.
Barna also noted a decline in midweek children's programming, from 64% of churches in 1997 to 58% in 2004. Because these figures are two decades old, they show direction rather than current levels. Leaders planning a 2027 calendar should check their own local offerings against the trend.
The volunteer pipeline is the bottleneck
Staffing, not space, is the constraint most often reported today. In the Sunday School Store's fall 2026 survey of children's ministry leaders, finding volunteers was the top worry, named by 305 of 661 respondents (46%). Most respondents were volunteers themselves. This is a trade-publication survey, not a random sample, so it describes the views of engaged leaders.
Burnout is the second half of the staffing problem. The same survey found that 161 of 660 leaders (24%) had seriously considered leaving children's ministry in the past year. Small classes are especially exposed: when two people rotate through a class, one absence can strain the whole week. For practical ways to widen the bench, see our faith-based volunteer statistics report and the VolunteerBadge Academy training library.
Which churches run child-safety screening?
Screening coverage varies widely by tradition. The 2020 Faith Communities Today survey, reported by Religion News Service, found that 96% of Catholic and Orthodox congregations do background checks on those who work with children, compared with 71% of mainline and 70% of evangelical congregations. Training rates followed a similar pattern.
Southern Baptist data shows the smaller-church gap. A Lifeway Research report found that about 58% of Southern Baptist congregations screen staff who work with kids, and congregations with fewer than 50 people were least likely, at 35%. That is the group most likely to be short-staffed, which makes screening a process problem as much as a budget one.
Leaders should also know what a check cannot do. A vendor guide argues that most denominational programs run basic national database checks that can miss county-level records. That claim comes from a commercial source, so verify your own provider's search scope. For a deeper look at how churches weigh liability, read our church liability statistics report.
Which trends are reshaping family participation?
Family schedules are competing with Sunday morning. A yourNEWS report on federal time-use data says Sunday religious participation among parents of school-age children has fallen by nearly 38% since the mid-2000s, with youth sports cited as a major factor. That figure comes from a news summary of the American Time Use Survey, so check the underlying BLS tables before quoting it in a grant or board report.
Parental modeling also matters. Barna's work on children's faith formation reports that about three in five engaged Christian parents attend church with their children every week, and that two-thirds of married parents' children (64%) attend weekly, compared with half of single parents' children (51%). Programs that recruit family volunteers may reach households that would otherwise drift.
What this means for your volunteer program
The numbers point to three priorities. First, recruitment is the bottleneck, so clear role descriptions and short-term shifts can pull in parents and retirees who would not commit to a full year. Second, screening coverage is uneven, especially in small congregations, and a documented process protects both children and leaders. Third, the age groups most at risk of being dropped, including under-twos and teens, deserve staffing attention before they disappear from the calendar.
VolunteerBadge makes the screening step simple. Our $5 FCRA-compliant background checks include identity verification, with no monthly fees. You can import your volunteer roster, run checks in batches, and add identity verification before a volunteer ever sits in a classroom. Nonprofits can review the nonprofit program overview to see how it fits a church budget.
If your team also runs seasonal events, our Vacation Bible School statistics and volunteer recognition report cover related staffing and retention questions.
Download the data
Every statistic in this report is listed in the dataset below, with its source and link. Download the spreadsheet for board packets or planning documents.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Is Sunday school disappearing?
A: Not entirely. Barna found more than 300,000 churches still offer classroom instruction, though the share offering programs for some age groups has slipped since 1997.
Q: What is the biggest challenge for Sunday school leaders?
A: In the fall 2026 Sunday School Store survey, 46% of children's ministry leaders named finding volunteers as their top worry.
Q: Do most churches run background checks on children's workers?
A: Coverage varies by tradition. The 2020 Faith Communities Today data shows 96% for Catholic and Orthodox congregations and about 70% for mainline and evangelical churches.
Q: Are small churches less likely to screen volunteers?
A: The Lifeway figure cited here shows 35% of Southern Baptist congregations under 50 people screen kids' staff, compared with 58% overall.
Q: Is a background check enough to protect children?
A: No. Checks are one layer. Training, supervision, two-adult rules and reporting policies are also needed. This is general information, not legal advice; consult your insurer and attorney.
Q: How often should volunteers be rescreened?
A: Some insurers now require annual checks, according to Group's children's ministry guidance. Confirm your carrier's requirement.
Sources & references
- Barna Group: Sunday School Is Changing in Under-the-Radar But Significant Ways
- Barna Group: 58% of Highly Engaged Christian Parents Choose a Church with Their Kids in Mind
- Pew Research Center: Americans' childhood religious identities, practices, education (2025)
- Pew Research Center: 10 key findings about the religious lives of U.S. teens and their parents (2020)
- Pew Research Center: Religious Habits of U.S. Teens (2020)
- Sunday School Store: How to Find Children's Ministry Volunteers in a Small Church (fall 2026 survey)
- Religion News Service: Background checks are essential for kids' ministry (2024)
- Lifeway Research: Churches Increasingly Use Background Checks to Ensure Safety (2019)
- Baptist General Association of Virginia: How Many Churches Use Background Checks?
- Tennessee Baptist and Reflector: Background Checks, A Necessity, Not an Option, for Churches
- SecureSearch: Why Background Checks Aren't Enough (2026, vendor guide)
- SecureSearch: VBS and Church Camp Background Checks (
