Survey shows severe decline in evangelicals’ Biblical tithing

The average evangelical household gave less than 2% of its household income to the church last year, according to a recent study on generosity among protestants. Researchers found that although giving stabilized after several years of decline, tithing remained surprisingly low. Grey Matter Research quizzed about 1,000 evangelical protestants online in mid-2025. The report was released this month by Infinity Concepts, a Christian marketing and fundraising agency.

The proportion of evangelicals tithing to the church dropped steeply from 2020 to 2024, as did the proportion of evangelicals donating to charities, according to the study. As expected, prayer, worship attendance, and biblical reading correlated with higher and more frequent church tithes. Someone with high spiritual engagement was also about 73% more likely to contribute to a charity outside the church.

The study highlighted an emerging pattern of Christians tithing through non-traditional channels, like crowdfunding, in addition to traditional church tithes. Nearly two-thirds of respondents helped a friend or family member with money or other goods, with about half providing for a stranger, the report found.

Could the elections impact the giving? Some theorized that evangelicals appropriated tithing money to political campaigns to explain the drop. Researchers noted that only about 12% of evangelists surveyed contributed to political causes over the last year, which mirrored data measured in early 2024. About 95% of those who gave nothing to church or charity also gave nothing to politics, the report noted.

Are people giving time to the church rather than money? Only about 2% of evangelicals volunteer without giving any money, and only about half of the evangelicals give their time in addition to tithes. Research also found that young adult evangelicals are most likely to volunteer, while the elderly are the least likely. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Janie B. Cheaney speaks on The World and Everything in It about the importance of cheerful giving.