Methodology

The survey questionnaire

The questionnaire was structured in five key sections: 

1. Categorisation – questions to gain basic information about the building, its location and how frequently it is used
2. About Your Church Building – questions to understand the current condition, assets and facilities of the main church building and associated properties
3. Supporting Your Local Community – questions to assess the value of the building to the wider community and the activities and resources involved in those community interactions
4. Managing and Resourcing your Church – questions to understand how the building is managed
5. Your Church’s Finances – questions to evaluate the financial health of churches as well as assessing environmental measures and future church viability.

Pilot and main stage

The National Churches Trust undertook a similar large survey in 2010. The results were informative and have continued to support our work. We took care when developing the National Churches Survey to make sure that the results were comparable, as far as possible with the 2010 survey. The Steering Group met in January 2025 to discuss the aims, practicalities and content of the study. The questionnaire was drafted during Q1 2025 and the Pilot Stage conducted during April. During this process 36 Surveys were completed independently of Steering Group members, extensive feedback was obtained and metrics such as time spent completing the Survey monitored. At the end of this process and on the basis of feedback received, the questionnaire was edited ahead of its launch on 9 May 2025. The questionnaire was also translated into Welsh. The Survey was formally closed in mid-July 2025, but late completions were accepted until the end of that month.

Contacts and response

In order to maximise participation rates, and to supply as much information to respondents as possible before completion, churches were invited to participate via a bespoke web page hosted by National Churches Trust, from which respondents could access the Survey. 
 

Additional measures to encourage participation included:

• working with denominations, heritage networks and church networks to 
  encourage representation from across the wider UK church community 
  by disseminating the link on our behalf;
• creating a pre-registration page where churches could indicate their 
  willingness to participate and from which they could be invited to take 
  part once the Survey went live;
• the generous support of Yeomans and Ecclesiastical Insurance who 
  publicised the survey;
• mainstream media coverage and social media campaigns for the Survey.

A series of reminder emails were sent to those we had either contacted directly, or who had registered themselves but not completed the Survey. A follow-up letter was sent to those who did not initially respond.

A total of 3,628 churches took part in the Survey, with responses received broadly representative of the UK in terms of denomination, attendance and building age and location, based on relevant independent data. There are no current UK-wide figures for community use so we have, in the process of analysis, utilised such independent data as are available to make estimates for the wider UK picture. 

Weighting

Data were weighted by denomination, UK nation, rurality, and listed status. We calculated target weights for denomination using data kindly provided by Dr Peter Brierley. We then weighted by listed status and UK nations with data from the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance, and by rurality using a combination of data specific to the Church of England (from their statistics team) as well as other available data sources on the rurality of churches. Once weighted, we compared the data of congregation size against the most up to date data from the major denominations on their registered congregation sizes which were all within a narrow range.