Pew Research challenges claims of revival within the UK

Recent headlines suggesting a revival of Christianity amongst young adults within the UK may overstate the image, in keeping with a recent evaluation by the Pew Research Center, which says the evidence depends heavily on how surveys are conducted.

In its evaluation, Pew examines a growing variety of surveys which have reported unexpectedly high levels of spiritual belief and practice amongst younger Britons, prompting claims that Christianity is regaining ground after many years of decline.

Pew claims, nonetheless, that lots of these findings are drawn from “opt-in” surveys, which depend on volunteers who join through adverts, mailing lists or online panels fairly than being randomly chosen from the population.

Pew says that large-scale surveys based on random samples – widely considered the gold standard in social research – show no clear sign of a sustained Christian revival amongst young adults.

The debate emerged following the publication of The Quiet Revival, a report commissioned by the Bible Society and released in April 2025.

Drawing on opt-in survey data, the study found that the proportion of 18 to 34 12 months olds in England and Wales who identified as frequent churchgoers rose by greater than threefold between 2018 and 2024.

The findings attracted widespread media attention and were cited as evidence of renewed Christian interest amongst younger generations.

Pew’s evaluation notes that similar conclusions have appeared in other opt-in surveys commissioned by Christian charities and faith-based organisations similar to Tearfund, Impact of Faith in Life and the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer project.

These studies have regularly found younger adults reporting higher levels of prayer, online worship, belief in God and planned church attendance than older age groups, and in some cases a lower likelihood of identifying as atheists. However, when the evaluation turns to surveys that randomly select participants, the image looks markedly different, Pew argues.

Data from the UK Labour Force Survey, which gathers responses from 50,000 people every year across 20,000 randomly chosen households, shows that Christian identification has continued to say no across all age groups.

Fewer than half (44%) of British adults identified as Christian throughout the 2025 summer, a steep fall from 54% in 2018.

Among 18 to 34 12 months olds, fewer than three in ten (28%) described themselves as Christian, a drop from 37% in 2018.

The British Social Attitudes survey, one other long-running study drawing from random sampling of over 3,000 adults, similarly shows no rise within the proportion of adults who each discover as Christian and attend church often. The proportion attending church at the least once a month in 2024 amongst young adults remained below pre-pandemic levels – at 6%.

Researchers similar to David Voas, a social scientist from University College London, argue that while church attendance has rebounded modestly for the reason that disruption brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has not returned to earlier levels.

Critics have also questioned the reliability of opt-in surveys, which they are saying will be vulnerable to bias despite statistical adjustments. Respondents may give inaccurate answers and AI tools could avoid fraud detection systems. Humanists UK has even called for The Quiet Revival study be withdrawn. Bible Society has repeatedly defended the research underpinning the report.

Pew’s evaluation observes that similar claims about rising Christian engagement have surfaced within the US based on opt-in surveys. However, Pew is just as critical and says that its own work and other population-based studies just like the General Social Survey and the American Time Use Survey show no convincing evidence of a spiritual resurgence amongst young adults.

Despite these methodological issues, Pew claims that findings from opt-in surveys about revival have tended to receive much more media attention than results from random population samples that challenge that narrative. According to Pew, this imbalance risks overstating the extent of spiritual change in Britain.

While there could also be renewed interest in faith amongst certain individuals and communities, Pew concludes that claims of a broad-based Christian revival amongst young adults will not be supported by essentially the most robust data currently available.

A spokesman for Bible Society defended The Quiet Revival report within the face of Pew’s evaluation.

“Bible Society’s The Quiet Revival report relies on a high-quality YouGov survey which uses a tried and trusted methodology,” he said.

“YouGov is meticulous in controlling for bias in responses. There’s no such thing as an ideal survey, but there is not any reason to think that ‘opt-in’ surveys are inherently unreliable.

“It’s also value noting how much other evidence there may be on the market that supports the YouGov findings – including a recent survey from Pew itself on spirituality around the globe. It’s noteworthy that Pew finds religiosity to be barely higher than YouGov, but overall there’s a lot agreement between these surveys it doesn’t seem credible to treat YouGov’s as indirectly an outlier.

“Other indications of a shift within the spiritual climate of England and Wales include the well-documented growth in Bible sales, the startling rise within the variety of adult converts to Catholicism, YouGov’s finding of a dramatic increase in belief in God amongst young adults, and steep rises in baptisms and church attendance in lots of European countries.”