Change in Diocesan Weekly Attendance, 2001-6

Nearly the final bit of stats for a while: here's a table of the change in average adult weekly attendance for all 43 C of E dioceses from 2001-6. A few things to bear in mind:

1. These figures come from the Church of England published stats available through their (our!) official website. The ** by Salisbury was on the published stats, but I couldn't find out what it meant!!

2. The figures show the difference in Average Adult Weekly Attendance, so it covers midweek services as well as Sundays, and doesn't include children. The Usual Sunday Attendance figure wasn't reported in 2006, so the only alternative for comparing 2001-6 would be Average Sunday Attendance. (see below the chart for more on this)

3. The published stats are 'provisional' for 2006.

Here are the dioceses, ranked in order, with the % change in AAWA 2001-6.
London 12%
Hereford 3%
York 1%
Gloucester 1%
Newcastle 1%
Manchester 0%
Wakefield 0%
Chelmsford -1%
Winchester -1%
Southwark -1%
Birmingham -2%
Norwich -2%
Carlisle -2%
Exeter -3%
Ripon & Leeds -3%
Bath & Wells -3%
Leicester -3%
Canterbury -4%
St Albans -4%
Total C of E -4%
Chichester -4%
Rochester -4%
Sodor & Man -4%
Lincoln -4%
Derby -4%
Southwell -4%
Ely -4%
Peterborough -5%
Oxford -6%
St Edmundsbury & Ipswich -6%
Guildford -7%
Coventry -7%
Bristol -7%
Durham -7%
Truro -7%
Worcester -8%
Salisbury**-8%
Lichfield -9%
Portsmouth -9%
Chester -10%
Blackburn -12%
Bradford -12%
Liverpool -14%
Sheffield -15%

Comments:
a) These figures look better than Bob Jacksons on church decline in the 90's, but they only cover half a decade, and use a different measurement.

b) Another stat we need is what proportion of average weekly attendance is outside Sundays. This would show whether midweek attendance is becoming relatively more important compared to Sunday services, and therefore how big a pinch of salt to take with any projections based on Sunday attendance alone.

The next and hopefully final bit in what's become a series will deal with b and provide a Sunday figure. Then the CofE will probably publish final stats which are nothing like the provisional ones, and I'll have to start all over again. Ho hum!