‘Spiritual awakening’ for Generation Z-A, Youth For Christ report says

A “SPIRITUAL awakening” is going on in Generation Z-A (11-18s), which “defies every prediction about declining religious engagement”, Youth for Christ (YFC) says.

The charity was launching a report last week, Z-A Growing Spirituality, drawing on 1009 accomplished anonymous online surveys from across Britain which a research company undertook for it in May. Of the respondents, 52 per cent identified as Christian. One third (35 per cent) considered themselves to be “a follower of Jesus” — up from 23 per cent in a YFC survey carried out in 2020 — and eight per cent said that they attended church as a part of their week — up from 4 per cent.

The charity had previously surveyed the identical age brackets in 2016 and 2020. In 2016, participants were asked: “Which of the next, if any, do you think in?” with the choices “God” (chosen by 32 per cent), “ghosts and spirits” (22 per cent), and “Don’t consider in either” (47 per cent). In 2025, asked whether or not they believed in God, 48 per cent answered “yes”, with “no” at 28 per cent and “unsure” at 24 per cent. In total, 19 per cent said that that they had had a spiritual experience — up from 11 per cent in 2020.

A complete of 43 per cent said that they prayed, up from 31 per cent in 2020 (and from 41 per cent in 2016). Of the 43 per cent, 61 per cent said that this was day by day. When they were asked, “Who or what do you pray to?”, the highest answer remained God (79 per cent), however the second commonest response was “myself” (14 per cent).

Asked “Have you ever had any contact with a church?”, 71 per cent answered within the affirmative, up from 62 per cent in 2020. The hottest reasons were: a Christmas service, a life event (wedding, baptism, funeral), and a faculty visit.

When asked to rank how much they trusted various individuals and organisations, 17 per cent put the Church last. But when asked: “Do you view the churches in your community positively or negatively?”, just six selected negatively, and 65 per cent said positively. Only one third (32 per cent) said that they’d not consider going to church to search out out more about God and spirituality. A complete of 70 per cent expected to feel welcome.

In the UK, most polls testing religious adherence involve over-18s. The World Values Survey carried out in 2022 found that Generation Z (born since 1997 and aged between 18-25) had the bottom levels of belief in God of any generation (37 per cent), 31 per cent identifying as atheist. British Social Attitudes research from 2019 found that those the 18-24s were rather more more likely to describe themselves as of “no religion” than their elders (71 per cent compared with a mean of 53 per cent).

Other polls have indicated a growing level of non secular affiliation. YouGov reports that the proportion of 18-24s affirming a belief in God had risen from 16 per cent in 2021 to 45 per cent this January. That month, a OnePoll poll of 10,000 people commissioned by the author Christopher Gasson found that only 13 per cent of the under-25s identified as atheist — the bottom of any generation — while 40 per cent identified as “Christian”. A Youthscape/Scripture Union (SU) poll of 1000 12- to 17-year-olds in 2022 identified about 20 per cent as practising Christians and 22 per cent as nominals.

Some polling has attracted scepticism. In 2017, Church House, in partnership with others, commissioned a ComRes poll of 2000 11-18s. A complete of 41 per cent described themselves as Christians, of whom half agreed that they were “an energetic Christian who follows Jesus”. Of the 41 per cent, 51 per cent reported going to church (News, 23 June 2017).

There are currently around 6.5 million 11-18s within the UK. If, as suggested within the YFC report, eight per cent were going to church on a weekly basis, that might mean 520,000 within the pews, across all denominations. The C of E’s latest Statistics for Mission, for 2023, report that 11- to 17-year-olds make up a worshipping community of 55,000.

Children and young persons are the fastest declining group within the C of E. Research published by Church House in 2022 suggests that they’re concentrated in a comparatively few churches, which usually tend to be large, urban, and Evangelical, with large ministry budgets. The Youthscape/SU research highlighted the challenges facing the Church when it got here to teenagers’ reactions to the Christian story, concluding: “Many young persons are happy with the concept of a loving God who created us and doesn’t hand over on us after we make mistakes. But for many, it doesn’t follow that we’d like saving, that God would turn into human, or that death and resurrection are essential for this.”

The YFC report is optimistic. The data “reveals something profound happening beneath the surface of our cultural conversations”, it suggests. Having grown up in “unprecedented uncertainty”, Generation Z-A has “experienced the hole guarantees of consumer culture first hand. . . Social media has shown them each connection and isolation in equal measure. This combination created something unexpected: a hunger for authenticity, transcendence, and hope. . . They’re trying to find something greater than themselves, something that may provide stability in an unstable world.”

The report concludes: “Churches that adapt their approach to fulfill Gen Z-A where they’re will discover a generation hungry for the excellent news they should share. Those who wait for young people to evolve to traditional paradigms will miss this remarkable moment of spiritual openness.”

The national ministries director at YFC, Laura Hancock, said that the info resonated with stories emerging from local YFC outreach centres. One youth employee had described how, the Sunday after she had carried out an RE lesson at a faculty, six of the youngsters had appeared at her church.

“We assume that individuals are anti-church, when actually young persons are rather more positive concerning the Church, and going into church doesn’t have the identical stigma that it did.” While young people were encountering youth staff in class, some were “just turning up”, having had dreams or read the Bible. “Jesus is doing something somewhat bit beyond us.”

The challenge was to be ready to fulfill them, she said. The Church had a “huge lack of resource” when it got here to youthwork volunteers, and other people fearing that youth culture was “up to now removed”. She hoped that the research would “stir hope”. The hottest volunteers, in her experience, were older, she said. “If you possibly can be in a room and listen and care, and have a DBS, that’s what is required.”