CHURCHGOING amongst young people, particularly men, in England and Wales is growing, but not throughout the Church of England, a latest report from the Bible Society suggests.
The report, The Quiet Revival, published on Tuesday, compares two weighted YouGov polls on churchgoing and Christianity, conducted online in 2018 and 2024, of 19,101 and 13,146 adults respectively. This was supplemented by fieldwork carried out between 4 November and a pair of December 2024.
Of adults surveyed, 12 per cent reported that they attended a church of any denomination a minimum of once a month last yr, compared with eight per cent in 2018. “In numerical terms, that’s growth from 3.7m in 2018 to five.8m in 2024 — a rise of 56%,” the report says.
This “dramatic growth” is owed largely to younger generations, it says. In 2018, 4 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds reported that they attended church monthly, compared with 16 per cent in 2024. For men, this increased from 4 per cent to 21 per cent and for girls, from three per cent to 12 per cent.
“This is now the second probably age group to attend church recurrently.”
The result’s a “curve” moderately than a simple association between age and attendance, the report says, with those in middle age (45–54) the least prone to attend (five per cent). The reversing trend can be true of gender, it says, with overall attendance for men (13 per cent) outstripping that of ladies (10 per cent).
The shift to younger generations can be increasing diversity within the Church, the report says. While just 19 per cent of all churchgoers are of ethnic minority, amongst 18- to 54-year-olds this figure rises to almost one third (32 per cent).
Growth among the many denominations varies, nevertheless. In 2018, Anglicans (Church of England and Church in Wales) made up 41 per cent of all churchgoers. This decreased to 34 per cent in 2024. Roman Catholic churchgoers have increased from 23 per cent to 31 per cent, while Pentecostals have increased from 4 per cent to 10 per cent.
“Again,” the report says, “we see a powerful age effect here — amongst 18–34s, only 20% of churchgoers are Anglican (down from 30% in 2018), with 41% Catholic and 18% Pentecostal.”
The report suggests that the “hostility” and “apathy” to Christianity recorded amongst older generations is consequently being replaced by “openness”, particularly amongst Generation Z, who “show above-average levels of heat to spirituality”.
More than half (51 per cent) of 18- to 24-year-olds said that they’d engaged with a “spiritual practice” over the past six months, compared with 42 per cent of the older generations. Forty per cent said that they prayed a minimum of monthly.
Almost one third of 18- to 24-year-olds said that they were curious to learn more in regards to the Bible, but of those that did, 35 per cent said that their faith was “undermined once they think/examine some parts” of it.
This suggests, the report says, that “there is evident need for more discipleship around Scripture. Approximately one-third of churchgoers say they lack confidence in navigating or understanding the Bible and speaking about it with others.”
Of all churchgoing Christians in 2024, 67 per cent said that they read the Bible a minimum of weekly, outside church. The report points to a “clear difference” between churchgoing and non-churchgoing Christians, suggesting that folks who don’t engage in churchgoing and Bible reading are less prone to discover as Christian. In 2024, 27 per cent of adults identified as Christian, but said that they didn’t go to church, compared with 32 per cent in 2018.
On openness, 31 per cent of non-churchgoers said that they’d attend church in the event that they were invited by friends or family, rising to 34 per cent amongst 18 to 34 year-olds.
“Relationships,” the report suggests, “are key here: over a fifth (22%) of non-churchgoing 18–34s say they’d read the Bible if advisable by a member of the family or friend they trust, in comparison with 13% who would if a trusted celebrity or public thinker advisable it.”
Besides a shift in cultural attitudes towards Church and Christianity, the report suggests, is “a deep seek for meaning, order, and belonging” related to poor mental health amongst younger generations.
“With the normalisation of Christianity in culture, and the boldness and luxury of Christian friends to share their very own faith experience, a lot of young adults now look like looking towards the Church as an area for locating healing and community in addition to a deeper sense of meaning of their life.”
The Quiet Revival concludes with 4 recommendations: the primary, for “policy-makers and opinion-formers” to recognise churchgoing Christians in society; and for Churches to work on increasing Bible discipleship, engage in intergenerational conversations inside congregations and more widely, and to “recognise the importance and impact of authentic personal relationships”.
In his foreword, the chief executive of the Bible Society, Paul Williams, said: “Our ‘Quiet Revival’ is low key, nevertheless it is widespread. It doesn’t draw attention to a specific leadership style, or way of doing church, or political influence.
“Instead, the story told on this report is revolutionary when it comes to the general public assumptions about Christianity in England and Wales, and transformational when it comes to how Christians take into consideration themselves.”
