Age and gender
Last month I reported that parishes often think that the age or gender profiles of their congregations are unusual. If this issue arises during a visit we usually refer to the results of the voluntary survey of electoral roll members carried out back in 2002 and 2003 to which I referred last month. Nearly 3,500 members completed the gender and age questions.
The gender question indicated that 65% of our members were female and 35% male. It is worth noting that in 2001, before our own survey, we had participated in a National Church Life Survey (NCLS) and when the results for the Chelmsford Diocese were published in 2003 they showed that 66% of our members were female. Both sets of data enable us to say with some confidence that almost exactly 2/3rds of our adult members are female and 1/3rd male. If in your church there is a roughly equal number of female and male members this will be quite unusual and there could be things from which others might learn.
In our voluntary survey the age question used age bands and required respondents to tick an appropriate box. This produced the following result which formed the basis of last month’s comment that 55% of our adult membership is over 60.
The NCLS survey used slightly different age bands but gave a very similar profile with the proportion of over-60s being a bit smaller at 47%. It is therefore possible to say with some certainty that half our adult members are over 60, this being twice the proportion which might be expected if all age groups were equally represented. The average adult ages from both surveys were 59 and 57 respectively so they were very close. If your church is significantly different from this again there could be things from which others might learn.
Don Cardy
31st July 2008
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