The Truth About Gen Z's Religion

The Barna headline was bold and all-caps: Young Adults Lead a Resurgence in Church Attendance.

Says Barna:

Millennials and Gen Z Christians are attending church more frequently than before and much more often than are older generations. The typical Gen Z churchgoer now attends 1.9 weekends per month, while Millennial churchgoers average 1.8 times—a steady upward shift since the lows seen during the pandemic.

While this may be good news for churches, what does it mean about the larger question that affects us: Are members of Gen Z more religious than they used to be or not? Are they, in other words, a richer potential audience for us across our various platforms than they have been before?

While a cursory read of this Barna piece is viewed as "good news" for us, such a read ignores some very important factors and a host of published research from other sources.

Here are some facts:

Gen Z is the least religious group in American history.

• 43% of Gen Z identifies as religiously unaffiliated ("nones"), compared to just 18% of Baby Boomers Deseret News
• Only 45% of Gen Z identifies as Christian, a 10% decline from previous generations CNS Maryland
• Gen Z is less religious than young adults were in both 2007 and 2014 across measures like religious identity, belief in God, and prayer frequency Pew Research Center

In December 2025, Pew Research reported this:

Some media reports have suggested there may be a religious revival taking place among young adults, especially young men, in the U.S. But our recent polls, along with other high-quality surveys we have analyzed, show no clear evidence that this kind of nationwide religious resurgence is underway.

So here's the bottom line:

• Young adults remain much less religious than older Americans
• Christianity continues to lose far more people than it gains through religious switching among young adults

So why am I telling you this? For a few reasons:

1. Young adults require a concerted and focused effort in the creation of primarily digital products and services to nourish their religious path and their walk with Christ. The idea that more kids will walk into a church "just because" is naive. Arguably, young people are more likely to live online than in the real world nowadays. Minister to them there.
2. Brands like yours have a huge megaphone and spiritual footprint in your communities and are well suited to create just such digital products and services as natural extensions of your brand and your mission.
3. Who walks or doesn't walk into a church does not necessarily determine whether or not they will be fans of your brand or listeners to your station. Indeed, many if not most of your listeners are unlikely to be found in church on any given Sunday. Your audience is found elsewhere - at home, in cars, at the gym, etc. Wherever their are radios and digital devices.
4. Don't believe every survey headline reported in the national news.

Gen Z will gravitate to spiritual content on their own platforms and that content may not be the linear radio content that is your primary product today.

But that is an opportunity for brands like yours, not an obstacle.

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, underwriter impact studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.

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