A Closer Look at Recent Surveys
On social media, religious analyst Ryan Burge has taken issue with surveys that people cite for proof of revival among young Americans. Last week, amid a flurry of posts about Gen Z being “the top church-attending age group in the US as of 2025, per Barna,” Burge responded, “I’m so incredibly tired of all of this. NO THEY ARE NOT. THE BARNA NUMBERS DO NOT SAY THAT. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE TRUTH ANYMORE.”
A community note clarified that in a September 2025 survey, Barna Group research found that Gen Z’s “churched adults” are “the most regular churchgoers,” not that Gen Z is the top church-attending age group.
“It’s clear to me that no one read the actual report,” Burge posted on Dec. 28. “The sample that Barna is analyzing here is not all adults. It’s all church going adults. So their data claim is that church going Gen Z are attending with greater frequency than church going Millennials. So that’s a humongous caveat that’s often missed.”
Burge continued:
The other thing that needs to be considered is the size of the effect. Their data indicates that church going Gen Z are attending 1.9 times a month compared to 1.8 times per month for Millennials. So here’s the most accurate headline: Among Gen Z folks with a church going habit, they attend one more church service per year than Millennials from the same sub group.
He added, “And can we stop with this nonsense about how younger folks aren’t religious religious but they ARE VERY SPIRITUAL? No, they are not. Actually the…youngest adults are significantly LESS spiritual than prior generations, too.”
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In the research released in September, Barna Group and Gloo found that “the typical Gen Z churchgoer now attends 1.9 weekends per month, while Millennials average 1.8 times, representing a steady upward shift since the attendance decline observed during the pandemic” (emphasis added).
“In fact,” they added, “the frequency of churchgoing for Millennials and Gen Z has nearly doubled in just five years, rising from approximately one weekend per month in 2020 to nearly two in 2025.”
The organizations noted, “Overall, the data shows that even regular churchgoers do not attend often. Among all self-described Christian churched adults, the average attendance is 1.6 times per month, or roughly two out of every five weekends.”
Barna Group CEO David Kinnaman said today’s young people show “a renewed openness to faith” and recommended that churches offer “relational connection, volunteer engagement, and clear discipleship pathways” for that population.
Disclosure: ChurchLeaders is owned by Outreach Inc., which is owned by Gloo.
