An IMS survey for the Redemptorist teen magazine Face Up has found that more than half of those aged 15, 16 and 17 attend Mass every Sunday. Conducted among 803 teenagers throughout Ireland, it found that 52 per cent attended weekly Mass, with 13 per cent doing so monthly, 18 per cent less than monthly, 1 per cent daily and 16 per cent never attending at all.
Of those who attend weekly, 45 per cent are boys and 59 per cent are girls. Some 59 per cent of those aged 15 attended Mass weekly, while 53 per cent of those 16 and 45 per cent of those 17 did so. Some 22 per cent of those 17 attended Mass monthly, with 22 per cent never doing so.
Highest weekly attendance is among teenagers in Connacht-Ulster, at 67 per cent. Next-highest is Northern Ireland teenagers, at 59 per cent, while the Munster figure is 53 per cent. The figure for Leinster (outside Dublin) is 47 per cent.
In Dublin, 28 per cent of teenagers attend weekly Mass, while 39 per cent never attend. This compares to non-attendance figures of 2 per cent in Connacht-Ulster, 8 per cent in Munster, 15 per cent in Leinster (outside Dublin), and 16 per cent in Northern Ireland.
Of those who never attend, 17 per cent are boys and 15 per cent girls, while 23 per cent are from urban areas, with 8 per cent from rural parts.
Among reasons teenagers dislike Mass are "long and tedious" homilies and "the formality".