Recent surveys by the Pew Research Center and the Hartford Institute for Religious Research indicate that one in four Americans do not belong to any religion. In fact, the largest “religious” group in the United States now is made up of ex-Catholics. At last count, there were about 385,000 churches belonging to more than 60 denominations, down about 30,000 from just five years ago. Over half of these churches have only 100 worshippers on weekends. About 30 million Catholics have left the American church and about 56 million have left the Protestant denominations in the last few decades. Over 40% of Americans raised Catholic have left the Church.
http://hpr1.com/index.php/opinion/gadfly/empty-pews-and-collection-plates/
http://hpr1.com/index.php/opinion/gadfly/empty-pews-and-collection-plates/
