{"id":44792,"date":"2026-08-14T17:23:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44792"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:23:28","slug":"is-there-a-religious-revival-happening-among-gen-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44792","title":{"rendered":"Is There a \u2018Religious Revival\u2019 Happening Among Gen Z?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<section>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blta850e299027c6ef1\/6a7dd2b997a0201cdb2e9980\/Gen_Z_Religion_Final.png?branch=production\" \/><figcaption>Pastors and priests from across the country have said that they\u2019ve observed more young people attending their services, but researchers and political scientists have cast doubt on whether those anecdotes are reflective of a widespread trend. \u2014Photo-Illustration by Chloe Dowling for TIME (Source Images: shutterjack\/Getty Images; Bryan Anselm\u2014The Washington Post\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<p>A couple months after Anthony Gross moved to New York, he came up with an idea for a new TikTok series: He decided to visit and rank different Catholic churches in the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs someone who just moved there from out of state, Midwest, I don\u2019t know anything about New York,\u201d the 23-year-old recalls thinking. \u201cI don\u2019t really have that many friends. I don\u2019t have community. And I definitely don\u2019t know where to go to mass. I would just look it up on ChatGPT. Like I would want to go at night, I\u2019d say, \u2018What\u2019s a 5 p.m. mass near me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some of those videos garnered tens of thousands of likes on TikTok. And, at some of the services he went to, he noticed a lot of other Gen Zers; one Sunday, Gross attended mass at St. Joseph\u2019s Church in Greenwich Village at the recommendation of another content creator, and he recalls that he was \u201cblown away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe place was packed,\u201d he says. \u201cYou had to show up 10 minutes early. You could barely get a seat. Everybody was under the age of 30.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gross says this is part of a broader religious revival among young people in the U.S.\u2014a sentiment echoed by many people in the Christian community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pastors and priests from across the country have said that they\u2019ve observed more young people attending their services: Bishop John Dolan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, for instance, says his diocese saw hundreds of people baptized over Easter weekend, most of them Gen Z. Young Christian influencers have also <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/christian-influencers-girls-gone-bible-megan-ashley-1241a2e0e54fc9fb828734ea911dd77d\">gone viral online<\/a>. Media outlets have published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/young-new-yorkers-have-a-new-hot-spot-sunday-mass-b96e1449\">articles<\/a> about church being the new Gen Z \u201chot spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throngs of young people are turning out for religious conferences and gatherings around the U.S. as well. During the first weekend of August, nearly 2,000 people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/news\/houston-texas\/religion\/article\/catholic-youth-conference-christian-22366235.php\">convened<\/a> for a three-day Catholic youth conference in Houston, where attendees hailed a resurgence of faith among young people in interviews with the local press. A <a href=\"https:\/\/cyo-no.org\/nola-cyc\">similar Catholic youth conference<\/a> will be held in New Orleans for students in grades seven through twelve next month. And in November, thousands of teens will flock to Long Beach, California for the <a href=\"https:\/\/ncyc.us\/\">National Catholic Youth Conference\u2014<\/a>what\u2019s considered to be the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.evdio.org\/national-catholic-youth-conference.html\">largest gathering<\/a> of Catholic youth in the country. The Passion Conference, a broader non-denominational Christian event designed for 18- to 25-year-olds, is then set to take place\u2014and for the first time ever, the conference will be held in two stadiums, one in Texas in December and another in Georgia in February, which organizers <a href=\"https:\/\/passionconferences.com\/conference\/\">said<\/a> will \u201cmak[e] room for more students than ever before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But researchers and political scientists have cast doubt on whether those anecdotes are reflective of a widespread trend. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2025\/12\/08\/religion-holds-steady-in-america\/\">report<\/a> released in December, the Pew Research Center said that its polls, as well as other reputable surveys, \u201cshow no clear evidence\u201d of a \u201cnationwide religious resurgence\u201d among young people. (The center\u2019s report breaks some of its findings down by \u201cChristianity,\u201d \u201cno religion,\u201d and \u201cother religion.\u201d Many other religion-related surveys don\u2019t break their findings down by different religious traditions; political scientists say that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2025\/02\/26\/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off\/\">majority of Americans<\/a> are Christian, so it can be difficult to draw nationwide trends on other faiths based on the data.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the data shows that young adults are still less religious than their older counterparts. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/prri.org\/spotlight\/2025-prri-census-of-american-religion\/#\">data<\/a> released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in April, more than 75% of Americans ages 65 and older identify as Christian, compared to 54% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at survey findings, says Ryan Burge, a former pastor who is now a professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, there\u2019s no indication of a religious revival among young people. The data does show that religiosity, which refers to the depth of a person\u2019s religious beliefs, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2025\/02\/26\/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off\/\">holding steady since about 2020<\/a> after years of decline\u2014but, Burge says, \u201cthat\u2019s not a resurgence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think that young people are just more open to the idea of religion because they don\u2019t have all this religion background that prior generations did,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cBut at the end of the day, it\u2019s butts in seats. That\u2019s what religion is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burge says the dissonance between the narrative of a religious revival and what the nationwide data is showing could be because \u201coutlier stories are the ones that stick in our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another possible explanation he posits for the split between the data and the anecdotes is that the media tends to draw attention to stories that show a reversal of trends. Other experts put forward the same theory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne reason we might be seeing the dissonance is that the news media often likes to run stories that run counter to the typical conventional wisdom,\u201d says Melissa Deckman, the chief executive officer of the PRRI. \u201cSo I think there might be some legitimate cases where we see an uptick in individual churches where more young people are coming to join or attending services regularly \u2026 but I would caution against looking at anecdotes as being the same things as general trends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some experts say that certain pieces of data do suggest that there might be a revival\u2014for instance, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/708410\/rise-young-men-religiosity-realigns-gender-gaps.aspx\">Gallup polling<\/a> released in April found an increase in the number of young men who said that religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives. But other metrics, such as regular weekly church attendance, analyzed by other pollsters <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/07\/09\/religion-gender-gap-gen-z-young-men-women\/\">don\u2019t show<\/a> this same uptick.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/07\/09\/religion-gender-gap-gen-z-young-men-women\/\"><em>Religion\u2019s Longstanding Gender Gap Is Narrowing Among Gen Z. But Which Gender Is Narrowing It\u2014and Why?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would not say that the evidence [of a revival] has been convincing, but there are hints in the data,\u201d says David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. \u201cIt\u2019s entirely possible that the anecdotal reports are a leading indicator\u2014so one possibility is three years from now, we\u2019ll be having this conversation and say yeah, it turns out there really was a religious revival; it just takes a while to show up in the data.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd yet another [possibility] is there really isn\u2019t a religious revival at all,\u201d he continues. \u201cThere have always been examples of particular congregations that are able to draw in young people; it\u2019s just nobody had stitched them together into a common narrative until now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deckman also says that the idea of a religious revival \u201cfits into the larger narrative of younger people struggling to find meaning and connection in life,\u201d particularly in this era of the rise of social media and AI, when people are searching for more human connection\u2014which, for some people, religious institutions can provide them with.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix began working on an <a href=\"https:\/\/dphx.org\/synod\/synod-of-young-adults\/\">initiative<\/a> that involved holding listening sessions with young people about their thoughts and feelings on various topics, including faith and family life. What the diocese found, Dolan says, is that young people are wanting\u2014and finding, through the church\u2014\u201ca sense of belonging, a sense of healing from family instability and personal trauma and mental health struggles, [and] a sense of formation.\u201d Young people also said they are searching for \u201ca sense of safety,\u201d Dolan says, adding that the church is \u201ckind of a refuge of reverence and stability; it\u2019s a place where they can step out of this hectic world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Janfaza, a youth political analyst and founder of the research and strategy firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theupandup.us\/\">The Up and Up<\/a>, says that she has also been hearing from many young people that religion is important to them\u2014which \u201cmakes sense,\u201d she adds, given the times they\u2019re living in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we look at Gen Z, which has grown up amid constant chaos and really a loneliness epidemic, it makes sense why this cohort would be moving into religion as an organized form of not only community and a sense of belonging, but it also gives them purpose and a way to find meaning in a world that has felt very chaotic,\u201d Janfaza says.<\/p>\n<p>Gross, who recently moved to Fort Lauderdale, says it seems to him that, in New York, \u201cdefinitely the numbers are up.\u201d His TikToks of St. Joseph\u2019s in Greenwich Village show packed pews. Sometimes, he says, people have to stand in the back.<\/p>\n<p>And he attributes that to young people craving community, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, some people may call us the crisis generation; there\u2019s been a lot of stuff that we\u2019ve gone through that has made us feel anxious, uncertain, lost, not loved, lack of community,\u201d Gross says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd in times like that,\u201d he says, people may feel like, \u201c\u2018I can\u2019t play this game of life alone, and I need somebody else that I can put my trust in, and someone else that I can believe in, and someone else that I know at the end of the day loves me and is going to lead me down a path for a greater good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastors and priests from across the country have said that they\u2019ve observed more young people attending their services, but researchers and political scientists have cast doubt on whether those anecdotes are reflective of a widespread trend. \u2014Photo-Illustration by Chloe Dowling for TIME (Source Images: shutterjack\/Getty Images; Bryan Anselm\u2014The Washington Post\/Getty Images) A couple months after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blta850e299027c6ef1\/6a7dd2b997a0201cdb2e9980\/Gen_Z_Religion_Final.png?branch=production","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}