If People Leave the Faith, When Do They Do It?

I have recently undertaken a study of Christian deconversion–why do people leave Christianity. In reading about the topic, I came across an interesting study. A group of Dutch researchers studied religious (and other) transitions among 1,000 people. 653 of these respondents were raised in a religious home, and of them 186 left their church. Among those who left, when did they do so?

Percentage that leave the church by age group (n=186)

Age, % leaving church
13-14, 3.2%
15-16, 12.4%
17-18, 18.3%
19-20, 21.5%
21-22, 8.1%
23-24, 8.6%
25-26, 9.7%
27-28, 3.8%
29-30, 3.2%
31-34, 1.6%
35-39, 2.7%
40-49, 2.2%
50+, 2.2%

As a summary, 28% of their sample left the Christian church, and, those who left were most likely to do so in the high school and early college years. I suppose this provides justification to churches that emphasize high school and college programs.

(Citation: Need, Ariana, and Nan Dirk De Graaf. 1996. European Sociological Review
12(1)87-99. Table 3.)

Technical note: I probably would have analyzed the data differently–equal age ranges + looking at hazard of leaving over time, not raw percentages. This approach may over emphasize leaving in youth… but still I think that it’s story is basically right.