Are young adults becoming more religious? New findings reveal a complicated picture

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, November 04, 2026

Younger Americans show mixed patterns in their religious beliefs and practices as religious identification, prayer and church attendance in the United States have remained relatively steady in recent years, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

The analysis, published Oct. 28 through the Pew-Knight Initiative, finds that Americans born between 2004 and 2008, who are now approximately 18 to 22 years old, reported relatively high levels of religious attendance.

Around 41% of adults in that age group said they attended religious services at least once or twice a month, compared with 33% of the overall U.S. adult population. However, those ages 18 to 22 “are no more religious today than young adults in this age range were in 2014,” the analysis stated.

The research found that adults ages 23 to 26 “are the least religious age group when it comes to how often they pray, how important religion is in their lives and how many of them identify with a religion.” Only 27% of that age group reported attending religious services at least monthly, which the report said is “among the lowest of any age group.”

Overall, both age groups “are significantly less religious than young adults of the same ages were in 2007,” the Pew-Knight report found.

Researchers for the Pew-Knight analysis drew data from Pew’s 2026 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) and its 2025 Cross-Sectional Engagement Survey. They compared the aggregated results with NPORS studies conducted from 2020 to 2024 and with the Center’s Religious Landscape Studies from 2007, 2014 and 2023-24.

The report also drew data from the Center’s American Trends Panel, conducted online and by telephone from May 26 to June 1.

"[T]here is no clear evidence in Pew Research Center surveys that any birth cohort of Americans that can be tracked over time has become more religious in recent years," the researchers added. "Since our recent surveys include only people 18 and older, we don’t know how religious the 2004-08 birth cohort was a few years ago, when its members were still minors. But all the preceding birth cohorts have been fairly stable over the last six years."

Delano Squires, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing within The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, noted that measures of "religiosity have increased since 2020 but still represent a decline since 2007."

"The decline in online religious service participation and increase in in-person attendance since 2021 seem to be clearly driven by returns to pre-pandemic norms," Squires told The Christian Post.

"There is an interesting dichotomy involving younger adults (18-22) who report attending religious services at least once a month (41%) vs. those born in the 1990s or earlier (33%), largely because the latter group is more likely to pray daily (48% v 34%), view religion as important (44% v 36%), and identify with a religion (71% v 59%). The other gap that stands out is the partisan differences in religious observance," he continued.

"Republicans had at least a 14-point gap over Democrats on every measure in the survey, and at least a 20-point gap among adults ages 18-22.”

The analysis also found differences in religious attendance among young Americans by sex and political affiliation.

In the assessment of religion and politics among young adults, the youngest Republicans were found to attend religious services more often than the youngest Democrats and at fairly high rates compared with older Republicans.

“But [the youngest Republicans] are not solely responsible for the high levels of religious attendance among the youngest adults,” the Pew-Knight analysis stated. “The youngest Democrats also attend services at relatively high rates compared with Democrats in some older age groups.”

Researchers also pointed to surveys in the analysis that found young men report attending religious services more than young women.

“This is something we have not seen before in our surveys. In the past, American women have tended to be more religious than American men,” the Pew-Knight report noted. “Yet the youngest women also say they go to services at relatively high rates, compared with women in the immediately preceding age groups.”

Since 2020, the percentage of U.S. adults who identify with a religion, pray daily, consider religion very important and attend religious services at least monthly has remained relatively stable.

The Pew-Knight report stated that “after a prolonged decline,” religion in the United States “has shown signs of strength and stability in recent years.”

Researchers say religious service participation has continued to recover from pandemic-era lows, when many houses of worship closed because of COVID-19.

In a June 2026 survey, 34% of Americans said they attended religious services in person in the previous month, while 45% said they either attended in person or watched services online or on television.

“Both numbers are at their highest levels since the Center started asking these questions in July 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak,” the report stated.