Southern Baptist membership sank last year to its lowest level since 1973, even as the U.S.’ largest Protestant denomination saw increases in baptisms and attendance at services.

Those results for 2025 were released Tuesday by Lifeway Research, the denomination’s research affiliate.

Membership fell by 3% to 12.3 million, continuing a nearly two-decade decline. At the same time, weekly worship attendance was up by nearly 4% to 4.5 million.

The number of baptisms increased 5% to 263,075. It was the second consecutive year in which the number of baptisms exceeded those before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The denomination often uses as baptism as a key spiritual vital sign, a measure of how many people are being brought into the faith.

“We are grateful Southern Baptists continue to show growth in key metrics like baptisms, worship attendance and Bible study participation,” Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, said in a statement.

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, attributed the membership dip in part to church closures and to congregations cleaning up their membership rolls.

The SBC numbers are based on self-reporting by congregations. Most members are in the denomination’s traditional base of the South, where it was founded by a pro-slavery faction before the Civil War, though it has since developed a presence throughout North America.

The numbers are closely watched by scholars because the SBC has long represented the single largest body of evangelical Christians and keeps meticulous records.

The SBC remains by far the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. in part because many other large denominations have been declining even more. The ranks of nondenominational churches — many of them with evangelical beliefs and independent governance similar to Baptists — have been growing. So have the ranks of the “ nones,” people with no religious affiliation, although that decades-long growth has stalled in recent years, according to a survey released last year by the Pew Research Center.

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