Recent headlines suggesting a revival of Christianity among young adults in the UK may overstate the picture, according to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center, which says the evidence depends heavily on how surveys are conducted.
In its analysis, Pew examines a growing number of surveys that have reported unexpectedly high levels of religious belief and practice among younger Britons, prompting claims that Christianity is regaining ground after decades of decline.
Pew claims, however, that many of these findings are drawn from “opt-in” surveys, which rely on volunteers who sign up through adverts, mailing lists or online panels rather than being randomly selected from the population.
Pew says that large-scale surveys based on random samples - widely regarded as the gold standard in social research - show no clear sign of a sustained Christian revival among 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 year olds in England and Wales who identified as frequent churchgoers rose by more than threefold between 2018 and 2024.
The findings attracted widespread media attention and were cited as evidence of renewed Christian interest among younger generations.
Pew’s analysis notes that similar conclusions have appeared in other opt-in surveys commissioned by Christian charities and faith-based organisations such as Tearfund, Impact of Faith in Life and the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer project.
These studies have frequently 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 analysis turns to surveys that randomly select participants, the picture looks markedly different, Pew argues.
Data from the UK Labour Force Survey, which gathers responses from 50,000 people each year across 20,000 randomly selected households, shows that Christian identification has continued to decline across all age groups.
Fewer than half (44%) of British adults identified as Christian during the 2025 summer, a steep fall from 54% in 2018.
Among 18 to 34 year olds, fewer than three in ten (28%) described themselves as Christian, a drop from 37% in 2018.
The British Social Attitudes survey, another long-running study drawing from random sampling of over 3,000 adults, similarly shows no rise in the proportion of adults who both identify as Christian and attend church regularly. The proportion attending church at least once a month in 2024 among young adults remained below pre-pandemic levels - at 6%.
Researchers such as David Voas, a social scientist from University College London, argue that while church attendance has rebounded modestly since the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has not returned to earlier levels.
Critics have also questioned the reliability of opt-in surveys, which they say can 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 analysis observes that similar claims about rising Christian engagement have surfaced in the US based on opt-in surveys. However, Pew is just as critical and says that its own work and other population-based studies like the General Social Survey and the American Time Use Survey show no convincing evidence of a religious resurgence among young adults.
Despite these methodological issues, Pew claims that findings from opt-in surveys about revival have tended to receive far more media attention than results from random population samples that challenge that narrative. According to Pew, this imbalance risks overstating the extent of religious change in Britain.
While there may be renewed interest in faith among certain individuals and communities, Pew concludes that claims of a broad-based Christian revival among young adults are not supported by the most robust data currently available.
A spokesman for Bible Society defended The Quiet Revival report in the face of Pew's analysis.
"Bible Society's The Quiet Revival report is based 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 a perfect survey, but there's no reason to think that 'opt-in' surveys are inherently unreliable.
"It's also worth noting how much other evidence there is out there that supports the YouGov findings – including a recent survey from Pew itself on spirituality around the world. It’s noteworthy that Pew finds religiosity to be slightly higher than YouGov, but overall there's so much agreement between these surveys it doesn't seem credible to regard YouGov's as in some way an outlier.
"Other indications of a shift in the spiritual climate of England and Wales include the well-documented growth in Bible sales, the startling rise in the number of adult converts to Catholicism, YouGov's finding of a dramatic increase in belief in God among young adults, and steep rises in baptisms and church attendance in many European countries."
