Claims of a Christian revival among the United Kingdom’s young adults may be based on data from surveys with flawed methodology, while two major UK studies show a downturn in faith, according to the Pew Research Centre. Source: OSV News.
On January 23, Pew published a short analysis of conflicting survey data on whether Britain’s young adults are embracing Christianity.
A flurry of opt-in surveys – where participants sign up to participate “often in response to website ads or email campaigns” – have touted an upswing in Christian belief, practice and identity among those in the 18-34 age range, wrote Conrad Hackett, associate director of research and senior demographer at Pew, in his analysis.
Sponsoring organisations for such surveys have included the UK charity Bible Society, which announced in April 2025 that “church attendance in England and Wales is on the rise,” with “the most dramatic increase seen among young people”.
Tearfund, another British-based Christian charity, said its 2024 opt-in survey showed a spike in young adult participation in online worship, and its 2025 survey indicated that a greater share of younger, rather than older, adults planned to attend Christmas services.
Opt-in surveys by the Church of England, polling firm YouGov, the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer project and the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life have all found “high levels of religious activity among young adults in recent years,” Mr Hackett wrote.
However, data from major surveys drawing on random population samples “show that Christian identity and practice are not increasing among young adults in Britain”, he noted.
Britain’s Labour Force Survey, which typically interviews more than 50,000 people per quarter, has measured a continuing decline in Christian identity across age groups in the UK, with 44 per cent of British adults identifying as Christian by the summer of 2025, down from 54 per cent in early 2018, according to Pew.
“Throughout this period, older British adults consistently identified as Christian at higher levels than young adults,” Mr Hackett wrote.
Data from the annual British Social Attitudes survey, which polls a random sample of over 3000 adults, also “shows no clear evidence of a Christian revival,” he said.
“Among all adult respondents, the share who identify as Christians and who go to church at least once a month was 12 per cent in 2018 and 9 per cent in 2024,” Hackett wrote.
Mr Hackett said “a lot of times, opt-in polls can produce misleading results, especially for young adults.”
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Pew analysis shows ‘no clear evidence’ Christian revival in UK (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
