Gen Z adults attend church more than all other generations: report

Gen Z adults are attending church more frequently than any other generation, according to new research from the Barna Group.

The findings, part of Barna’s ongoing State of the Church Initiative with the tech company Gloo, show a post-pandemic rise in churchgoing among Gen Z adults ages 18 to 28. On average, people born between 1997 and 2007 attend church about 23 times per year, surpassing Gen X at about 19 and boomers at under 17. Millennials are close behind at 22 annual visits, up from their previous high of 19.

The results show the highest level of church attendance among young adults since Barna began its tracking.

“The fact that young people are showing up more frequently than before is not a typical trend,” Barna’s vice president of research, Daniel Copeland, said in a statement. “This data represents good news for church leaders and adds to the picture that spiritual renewal is shaping Gen Z and Millennials today.”

A Pew Research Center report released earlier this year found that 45 percent of adults under 30 attend religious services, down nearly 20 points in a decade. Pew also noted that while older generations remained more religious than younger ones, adults ages 18 to 24 are not significantly less religious than those 25 to 34.

Barna suggested that if the current trend continues, Christianity in the United States could gain renewed momentum over the next decade.

“In our collective memory, we have this memory that people attended church every week—twice on Sundays, Sunday school, and midweek services. The data is telling us there has been a shift,” Barna CEO David Kinnaman told Christianity Today.