Attendance at Church of England cathedrals rose for the fifth year in a row in 2025, with Sunday services enjoying particularly strong growth among adults.
Latest figures show that 32,600 people attended cathedral services in an average week, including Evensong, Morning and Evening Prayer and Sunday Eucharist.
Adult Sunday attendance was eight per cent higher than in 2024.
Major Christian festivals enjoyed strong turnouts, with Christmas attendance rising by six per cent, and Easter seeing a five per cent increase.
It is the first time that Easter service attendance has matched pre-pandemic turnout, although overall attendance across services and events remained below 2019 figures.
A further 657,700 people attended 2,080 specially arranged services during the year, while 295,000 took part in additional regular services, including those held for schools.
Cathedral music continued to flourish, with the number of choirs reaching a record 208. The increase has been driven largely by the growth of mixed choirs over the past decade.
Looking beyond worship, Church of England cathedrals welcomed 9.23 million visitors through their doors, and hosted 1.83 million people at public and civic events like concerts, graduation ceremonies and community events.
The Dean of Wakefield, Dr Philip Hobday, said cathedrals continued to provide places of welcome, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
“Cathedrals are a cool space in the heatwave, a warm space in the winter, and in some of the nation’s most disadvantaged communities, one of the few spaces which are free to enter and where all are welcome,” he said.
He said he was "thrilled" to see a wider range of people visiting cathedrals for worship, concerts, school events and exhibitions, or “just for a few moments of peace in troubled times”.
He added: “With no guaranteed public sector funding, English cathedrals rely on the hard work of staff and volunteers, and the generosity of personal givers and funding bodies, to keep these beautiful spaces open to all as places of heritage, community-building, and Christian witness."
The latest figures build on the slow but steady recovery seen in cathedrals since the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Weekly attendance reached nearly 32,000 in 2024, an 11 per cent rise from the previous year, with much of the growth being seen at midweek services.
Research by Theos earlier this year found that cathedrals are popular destinations, with 77 per cent of English adults visiting one in the previous three years, including more than two-thirds of adults with no religious affiliation.
The Living Stones report described cathedrals as civic and community “beacons”, and estimated their wider contribution to the local economy at around £235m a year. They support more than 6,000 jobs and mobilise some 13,000 volunteers. However, four out of five cathedrals are believed to operate with a structural deficit, despite the benefits they bring.
