Bible Society withdraws ‘Quiet Revival’ report because it admits data was ‘faulty’

Bible Society has pulled its controversial ‘Quiet Revival’ report which claimed that Gen Z was returning to church in surprising numbers. 

The report was based on polling conducted on its behalf by YouGov and sparked much interest on the prospect of a resurgence of interest in Christianity after years of falling church attendance. 

According to the findings, in 2024 around 12% of adults had attended church no less than once a month, up from just 8% in 2018. Among men aged 18-24 this had allegedly risen to over a fifth – from just 4% of that demographic in 2018. 

The numbers and methodology were quickly questioned, nevertheless, including on this website, with apologist David Robertson noting that attendance data from the Church of England and Catholic Church in England and Wales showed decline in the identical period. 

Respected blogger, The Church Mouse, also got here out as a “Quiet Revival sceptic” and made similar observations: “While Mouse would like to imagine that folks are flocking back to church, his easy response was that it simply didn’t fit with the information we’ve from every other reliable source. Most importantly, the actual counting of bums in seats in any respect the most important denominations. In fact, over 70% of the expansion the Bible Society report claims to have spotted comes from two denominations that are self-reporting that they’re shrinking.” 

Researchers like David Voas, a social scientist from University College London, argued that while church attendance rebounded modestly post-Covid, it had not returned to earlier levels.

More recently, the esteemed Pew Research Center within the US challenged the report due to its reliance on “opt-in” surveys that are based on volunteers who enroll through adverts, mailing lists or online panels slightly than being randomly chosen from the population. Pew claimed that large-scale surveys based on random samples showed no clear sign of a sustained Christian revival amongst young adults.

Humanists UK had even called for The Quiet Revival to be withdrawn.

Despite these challenges, Bible Society had until now stood by its findings, saying it had been “conducted to the very best standards of polling reliability”.

It has now announced that the report is being pulled after it was informed by YouGov that the information was “faulty”. 

Bible Society said the Quiet Revival report “can now not be thought to be a reliable source of data in regards to the spiritual landscape in Britain”. 

Its CEO, Paul Williams, said in an announcement, “Over a 15-month period, Bible Society repeatedly sought and received assurances from YouGov, regarding each the robustness of the methodology and the reliability of the report’s conclusions.

“It was only originally of March that YouGov confirmed that it did not activate key quality control technologies that protect the sample from a wide selection of errors and this undermines the reliability of the outcomes.  

“We are due to this fact deeply dissatisfied that YouGov not only made an error but in addition that it only discovered this so recently. We are grateful that YouGov’s Chief Executive Officer Stephan Shakespeare has personally apologised. ”

YouGov CEO Stephan Shakespeare said: “YouGov take full responsibility for the outputs of the unique 2024 research, and we apologise for what has happened. We would love to emphasize that Bible Society has in any respect times accurately and responsibly reported the information we supplied to them.”

As was announced previously, YouGov will repeat the Quiet Revival study later this 12 months, although Bible Society said it might conduct “a broad programme of research … using a spread of methodologies”. 

It asserted that not the entire findings from the unique report are improper and that it has released a recent, alternative report called ‘The Quiet Revival one 12 months on: what is the story?’.

That report claims that “the default position on questions of spiritual identity is shifting from ‘Christian’ to ‘no religion’”, that “Christianity in Britain is experiencing each a decline in nominal faith, and a growth in energetic faith,” and that “increased Bible sales, baptisms, reports of increased church attendance and a surge in individual testimonies all point toward substantial recent conversion to Christian faith in recent times”.

“We would need to emphasize that YouGov’s error doesn’t mean that every one of the findings were improper – it signifies that we cannot reliably support those findings on the premise of this survey,” Bible Society said. 

“There is actually a really positive story to inform. Over the past 12 months we’ve seen an unprecedented public conversation about Christianity, with countless stories of a spiritual awakening amongst Gen Z, alongside greatly increased Bible sales within the UK, growing numbers of adult baptisms and confirmations, and increased attendance at evangelism courses.”

It added, “While religious identity overall is shifting from ‘Christian’ to ‘no religion’, Christianity in Britain appears to be moving from a declining nominal faith to a committed and energetic one, as cultural shifts – especially amongst younger people – encourage a more proactive seek for identity, meaning and purpose.”