In short
Weekly Bible reading among US Gen Z adults jumped to 49% in 2025 from 30% in 2024 (Barna Group with Gloo), lifting the US adult average to 42%. The American Bible Society counted 41% of adults as Bible Users, with the largest gains among younger men. But broader young-adult religiosity has only stabilized rather than surged (Pew), and the American Bible Society reports the 2025 bump largely returned to 2024 levels in its 2026 data, so the surge should be read cautiously.
- Gen Z weekly Bible reading jumped to 49% in 2025, up 19 points in one year.
- The surge reversed a 25-year low and put Gen Z ahead of Boomers.
- Young men now outread young women, reversing the historic gender gap.
- Read it cautiously: the 2025 bump largely reverted to 2024 levels by 2026.
Bible reading among Gen Z in the US rose sharply in 2025. Weekly Scripture reading among Gen Z adults climbed to 49% in 2025, up from 30% in 2024, according to Barna Group (with Gloo). Overall, 42% of US adults now read the Bible weekly, up 12 points from a record low of 30% in 2024. The American Bible Society's State of the Bible 2025 found 41% of US adults qualify as "Bible Users" (engaging Scripture at least three times a year outside worship), up from 38%, with the largest gains among men and younger adults. Pew Research offers a counterweight: broader young-adult religiosity has stabilized rather than surged. Note that the 2025 Bible-use bump largely reverted toward 2024 levels in 2026.
Key findings at a glance
| Metric | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen Z weekly Bible reading | 49% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| US adults weekly Bible reading | 42% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| US adults who are Bible Users | 41% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Gen Z men vs women, weekly | 54% vs 46% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| Gen Z who identify as Christian | 46% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| 2026 Bible use vs 2025 | Returned to 2024 levels | 2026 | American Bible Society |
The 2025 Gen Z Bible reading surge
Barna's headline finding was a single-year jump in weekly Scripture reading among Gen Z and Millennials that reversed a long decline and pulled the national average up. The 2024 baseline it is measured against was a 25-year low.
Weekly Bible reading among US Gen Z adults reached 49% in 2025, up from 30% in 2024, according to Barna Group.
42% of US adults said they read Scripture weekly in 2025, up 12 percentage points from 30% in 2024, according to Barna Group.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen Z one-year change in weekly reading | +19 points | 2024-2025 | Barna Group |
| US adults weekly reading, 2024 low | 30% | 2024 | Barna Group |
| Self-identified Christians reading weekly | 50% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| Barna 2025 interviews (25-year dataset: 138,556) | 12,116 | 2025 | Barna Group |
How Gen Z compares across generations
The gains produced a historic role reversal. Boomers, long the most-engaged cohort, now report the lowest weekly Bible reading of any generation, while Gen Z and Millennials lead. Gen Z is rising fastest but still starts from the lowest base on broader, less-frequent measures.
US Boomers showed the lowest weekly Bible reading of any generation in 2025 at 31%, down from a peak of 49% in 2010, according to Barna Group.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Millennials reading weekly | 50% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| Gen X reading weekly | 41% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| Gen Z using the Bible a few times a year (lowest of any generation) | 36% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
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The young-men shift
Both Barna and the American Bible Society flag rising Scripture engagement among younger men, narrowing or reversing the historic gender gap in which women read the Bible more than men.
Among US Gen Z, 54% of men read the Bible weekly in 2025 compared with 46% of women, according to Barna Group.
Bible use among US men rose from 34% in 2024 to 41% in 2025, closing a long-standing gender gap, according to the American Bible Society.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Millennial men vs women, weekly reading | 57% vs 43% | 2025 | Barna Group |
State of the Bible: Bible Users and Scripture engagement
The American Bible Society tracks a proprietary "Bible User" measure: someone who reads, listens to, or prays with the Bible on their own at least three times a year, outside of a worship service. That is a lower bar than weekly reading, so its numbers differ from Barna's.
About 41% of US adults, roughly 110 million, qualified as Bible Users in 2025, up from 38% in 2024, according to the American Bible Society.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| More Bible Users than in 2024 | 10 million | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Scripture-engaged Gen Z (deeper tier) | 15% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Scripture-engaged Millennials (deeper tier) | 17% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| US adults who own a Bible | 77% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Bible Users accessing Scripture digitally | 66% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
Wellbeing figures are association only. The American Bible Society reports that daily Bible readers averaged a Human Flourishing score of 7.9 in 2025 versus 6.8 for those who never read, but the gap does not show that reading causes flourishing; already-committed believers may simply score higher.
The counterweight: broader Gen Z religiosity
Rising Bible reading does not mean a broad young-adult revival. Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, based on 36,908 US adults, shows the youngest adults remain far less religious than the oldest on identity and practice, and finds no clear evidence of a young-adult surge.
46% of US adults ages 18 to 24 identify as Christian, compared with 80% of adults ages 74 and older, according to Pew Research Center.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ages 18-24 religiously unaffiliated (vs 13% of oldest adults) | 43% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Ages 18-24 who pray daily (vs 58% of oldest adults) | 27% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Ages 18-24 attending services monthly (vs 49%) | 25% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| US adults who identify as Christian, stable since 2019 | 62% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| US adults Scripture-disengaged (vs 47% in 2019) | 54% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
How durable is the trend?
The 2025 surge should be read with care. In the American Bible Society's 2026 data, Bible use and Scripture engagement had generally returned to 2024 levels, and rising reading frequency did not track rising belief in the text.
In the 2026 State of the Bible report, US Bible use and Scripture engagement had generally returned to 2024 levels, indicating the 2025 increase was not sustained, according to the American Bible Society.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bible-curious "Movable Middle" (up ~9 million since 2024) | 28% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| Christians strongly affirming the Bible's accuracy | 44% | 2025 | Barna Group |
How we compiled these statistics
Every figure on this page is traced to a primary source and dated to the year the data was collected. Gen Z, generational, and gender reading figures come from Barna Group's 2025 research with Gloo (12,116 interviews, January to October 2025). Bible-User, engagement, ownership, and flourishing figures come from the American Bible Society's State of the Bible USA 2025 and 2026 reports (conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago). Broader religiosity figures come from Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study. We label the American Bible Society Bible-User definition wherever it is used, frame flourishing figures as association rather than cause, and note that the 2025 increase largely reverted in 2026. We exclude the retracted UK Quiet Revival data.
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Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Barna Group, How Millennials and Gen Z Are Driving a Bible Reading Comeback (2025)
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible USA 2025 release
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible 2025, Chapter 3 (Scripture Engagement and Flourishing)
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible 2026, Chapter 1
- Pew Research Center, Decline of Christianity in the US has slowed, may have leveled off (2023-24 Religious Landscape Study)
- Lifeway Research, 8 Truths About American Bible Readers (summarizing State of the Bible 2025)
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