Oksana Hussain, of St. John’s church, said it seems people in their 20s and 30s are being pushed more into the city, and that the younger generation is not as much interested in urban living and family life as those who are older or have more experience.

“The younger generation has a lot more disposable income, they live more out in the country, many of them go abroad and spend a lot of money. They could possibly save money, but most are not prepared to do it,” Hussain said Wednesday.

Hussain said as the population grows older, more places will go out of business or see major renovations.

“That seems to be becoming a trend,” she said.

St. Mary church said its demographics don’t mirror those of its larger counterparts. But when it looked into its records, it realized it was seeing a similar trend.

“The census does not have figures on how the numbers compare to our bigger church,” pastor Mark Heid said.

Heid said the congregation has seen growth of up to 30 percent throughout its history.

“We have had a lot of population growth in St. Mary’s in the past five years,” he said. “And so we believe the church is very well-positioned.”

Last year, St. Mary’s had 763 people enrolled. The year before that, it held 807 people. The church has increased enrollment in the past decade almost in lockstep with the region’s growth.

One challenge with having larger congregations is that large parts of downtown St. John’s struggle with crime, such as drug dealing and prostitution that are not only detrimental to the community, but to religious life as well. While Heid acknowledged that drugs are not new to the city, he said the problem of these criminals and their activities may be going away because the city has already taken steps to end such matters.

“I think the issue there will disappear. I think what’s going to happen is we will have laws where you cannot sell in a park,” he said.

But while there has been a decrease in crime in the past six years, Hussain said there has been a double-digit jump in some areas that hasn’t been attributed to more crime.

“It is still much better to go into the city and visit a park than to go out and make a phone call to someone, or buy drugs or