In short
The Gen Z religion picture is mixed, not a clear revival. Pew found 43% of US adults ages 18-24 are religiously unaffiliated versus 13% of the oldest adults, and in December 2025 reported "no clear evidence" of a nationwide resurgence. Yet Barna found 66% of US adults report a personal commitment to Jesus still important today, up from 54% in 2021, and the historic gender gap has narrowed as young men tick up on some measures. Researchers caution the narrowing partly reflects young women leaving faith rather than men returning. Gen Z stays spiritually curious and prays outside the pews even as institutional attendance runs low.
- Belief and practice diverge: many young adults stay spiritual and pray while rarely attending services.
- This is stabilization, not a surge. Pew found no clear evidence of a nationwide revival since 2020.
- The gender gap narrowed partly because young women left faith, not only because young men returned.
- Unaffiliation is self-reinforcing: no recent US cohort has grown more religious as it aged.
The Gen Z religion picture is genuinely mixed. Barna found that 66% of US adults said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus that was still important to them in 2025, up 12 points from 54% in 2021, with commitment among Gen Z men rising 15 points since 2019 (Barna Group, a Christian research firm). Yet Pew's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study found 43% of adults ages 18-24 are religiously unaffiliated, versus 13% of the oldest adults (Pew Research Center). In December 2025 Pew reported "no clear evidence" of a nationwide revival, saying young-adult religion has held steady, not surged, since 2020. Springtide, Gallup, PRRI, and the American Bible Society round out a portrait of a spiritually curious but institutionally detached generation.
of US adults report a personal commitment to Jesus (up from 54% in 2021)
of a nationwide young-adult revival; religion has held steady since 2020
Key findings at a glance
| Metric | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal commitment to Jesus (US adults) | 66% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| US adults ages 18-24 religiously unaffiliated | 43% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| US adults ages 18-29 religiously unaffiliated | 45% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Gen Z men attending church in past week (vs 44% women) | 46% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| US adults ages 18-24 who pray daily (vs 58% oldest) | 27% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Young people who identify as at least slightly spiritual | 79% | 2021 | Springtide Research Institute |
The two-sided headline: rising commitment meets high unaffiliation
This is the core tension of the page. Barna reports a multi-year rise in personal commitment to Jesus, while Pew documents that young adults remain the least affiliated cohort and finds no evidence of a nationwide revival. Both can be true at once.
The share of US adults who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today reached 66% in 2025, up from 54% in 2021, according to Barna Group, a Christian research firm.
Pew Research Center found no clear evidence of a nationwide religious revival among young US adults, reporting that affiliation, prayer, and attendance have held fairly steady since 2020 (December 2025).
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rise in commitment to Jesus (roughly 30 million more adults) | 12 points | 2021-2025 | Barna Group |
| Rise in commitment to Jesus among Gen Z men | 15 points | 2019-2025 | Barna Group |
| US adults ages 18-24 who identify with a religion (was 74% in 2007) | 56% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
How unaffiliated is Gen Z, really?
The "nones" are concentrated among the young. Pew and PRRI figures show how many young adults claim no religion, and how that compares with older generations and with the adult-population baseline.
43% of US adults ages 18-24 are religiously unaffiliated, compared with 13% of adults ages 74 and older (2023-24), according to Pew Research Center.
45% of US adults ages 18-29 are religiously unaffiliated, including 8% atheist, 10% agnostic, and 27% "nothing in particular" (2023-24), according to Pew Research Center.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US adults ages 18-29 who identify as Christian | 49% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| US adults ages 18-24 who identify as Christian (vs 80% oldest) | 46% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| All US adults religiously unaffiliated (leveled off after decades of growth) | 29% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| US women under 30 who are unaffiliated (up from 29% in 2013) | 43% | 2025 | PRRI (via Christianity Today) |
| US men under 30 who are unaffiliated (vs 43% of women) | 35% | 2025 | PRRI (via Christianity Today) |
Build a daily prayer habit
Pray Focus helps you pray every day by gently locking distracting apps during your prayer time.
The young-men gender-gap story (and the honest caveat)
Multiple datasets show the historic gender gap narrowing among young adults, with young men rising on some measures. But researchers caution this reflects women leaving faith as much as men returning, so it should not be read as a straightforward male revival.
46% of Gen Z men reported attending church in the past week in 2025, compared with 44% of Gen Z women, according to Barna Group.
42% of young US men said religion is very important to them in 2024-2025, up from 28% in 2022-2023, while young women held at 30%, according to Gallup.
Among US adults born in the early 2000s, 41% of men and 43% of women identify as non-religious, a difference that is not statistically significant, per Pew data cited by the American Institute for Boys and Men.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US men vs women attending church weekly (largest Barna gap in 25 years) | 45% vs 36% | 2025 | Barna Group |
| Young US adults identifying with a religion (women vs men, near parity) | 57% vs 58% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Young US adults attending services monthly or more (men vs women, tied) | 40% vs 39% | 2024-2025 | Gallup |
Belief, prayer, and Scripture beyond the pews
Gen Z often practices faith outside institutions. Prayer persists even where attendance is low, belief in a higher power remains common, and Bible engagement is lower than in older cohorts but ticked up in 2025.
27% of US adults ages 18-24 pray daily, compared with 58% of adults ages 74 and older (2023-24), according to Pew Research Center.
About 45% of young people ages 13-25 report praying at least weekly, and a similar share read for spiritual purposes weekly, even as more than half rarely or never attend services, according to Springtide Research Institute.
36% of Gen Z adults were "Bible Users" in 2025, compared with 41% of the total US population, according to the American Bible Society. "Bible User" is a proprietary measure: interacting with Scripture at least a few times a year outside of a worship service, not weekly reading.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US adults ages 18-24 attending services at least monthly (vs 49% oldest) | 25% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Young people ages 13-25 who believe in a higher power | About half | 2021 | Springtide Research Institute |
| Scripture engagement among Gen Z (up from 11% in 2024) | 15% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Scripture engagement among Millennials (up from 12% in 2024) | 17% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
Spiritual but unbundled: how Gen Z assembles faith
Springtide describes Gen Z faith as "unbundled": young people mix practices and sources rather than inheriting one system wholesale. Spiritual identity outpaces religious identity, and Pew warns this pattern is generational rather than a phase they will grow out of.
79% of young people identify as at least slightly spiritual, according to Springtide Research Institute, outpacing the 71% who identify as at least slightly religious.
No recent US birth cohort has become more religious as it has aged, meaning today's less-religious young adults are unlikely to "age into" the religiosity of older generations, according to Pew Research Center.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young people who identify as at least slightly religious | 71% | 2021 | Springtide Research Institute |
| Young people engaging with art weekly as a spiritual practice | 53% | 2021 | Springtide Research Institute |
| Young people spending time in nature weekly as a spiritual practice | 40% | 2021 | Springtide Research Institute |
| "Stickiness" of a nonreligious upbringing (fewer raised religious stay religious) | Rising | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
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. Affiliation, prayer, attendance, cohort, and gender-parity figures come from Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study and its December 2025 stability report. The "religion is very important" and monthly-attendance gender figures come from Gallup. Belief, prayer, spiritual-identity, and spiritual-practice figures come from Springtide Research Institute. Commitment-to-Jesus and church-attendance figures come from Barna Group, a Christian research firm, and are labeled as self-reported. Bible-use and Scripture-engagement figures come from the American Bible Society, whose proprietary "Bible User" and "Scripture engaged" definitions we state rather than equate with weekly reading. Under-30 unaffiliation figures come from PRRI's 2025 Census of American Religion, reported by Christianity Today. We pair every "rising commitment" figure with Pew's "no clear evidence of revival" counterweight, and we exclude the retracted UK "Quiet Revival" data.
Curious how faith fits into daily life without a church service? Pray Focus includes a free prayer generator that writes a personal prayer for any topic in seconds, so prayer can stay part of your day even between Sundays.
Learn to pray.Make it a daily habit.
One email at a time, at your pace
Join our free email course and learn simple, time-tested ways to pray, with one small thing to try each time, so prayer slowly becomes part of your day.
- 8 short lessons: the Daily Examen, Lectio Divina, ACTS and more
- One tiny exercise each time, so praying becomes a habit
- Gentle and practical, never preachy. Free, forever.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Pew Research Center, Decline of Christianity in the US has slowed, may have leveled off (2023-24 Religious Landscape Study)
- Pew Research Center, Religion Holds Steady in America (December 2025)
- Pew Research Center, Religious Landscape Study executive summary
- Gallup, Rise in Young Men's Religiosity Realigns Gender Gaps (2025)
- Springtide Research Institute, Gen Z and Religion: What the Statistics Say
- Barna Group, Belief in Jesus Rises (2025)
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible USA 2025 release
- Christianity Today reporting PRRI 2025 Census of American Religion
Related articles
Youth and Gen Z
Young Men and Faith: US Statistics on the Narrowing Religious Gender Gap
The religious gender gap is narrowing among young US adults, and on some measures it has flipped. Here is what Barna, Gallup, PRRI, and Pew actually found, and why the sources disagree about whether it is a male revival.
Youth and Gen Z
Youth Prayer Habits: Teen and Young-Adult Prayer Statistics
Youth prayer runs lower than in older generations but has not collapsed. Here is what Pew, Springtide, and Barna actually found about how teens and young adults pray, and why the revival headlines need care.