Surprising revival: Gen Z men & highly educated lead return to religion

The decline of religion remains a fundamental reality in most Western countries, particularly in Europe, where over 50% of those under age 40 do not identify with any faith. Even in more religious America, some estimate that as many as 100,000 churches will close in the near future. Meanwhile, the ranks of “Nones,” those outside religious communities, have grown so large that their numbers rival those of Catholics and evangelical Protestants.

Yet, as we document in a new report for the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, there are signs that religion is enjoying more than a nascent revival. Data emerging from the 2020s suggest that we are witnessing a complex spiritual restructuring that intersects with economic mobility, demographic resilience, and a profound intellectual realignment.

For the first time in decades, Pew Research notes, in the U.S. at least, Christianity has stopped its nosedive as more people begin to see the efficacy, and the rewards, of religious faith and practice.

This fragile development is especially noteworthy as it exposes growing divides and fault lines in American politics and culture. Drawing on a vast array of longitudinal studies, interviews, and other sources, one startling finding in both America and abroad is that, contrary to past assertions, today the faithful are not poor and ignorant but increasingly from the educated upper middle class.

Even the cognitive elites are experiencing a growing trend to embrace religious activity. Indeed, in a rebuke of the aggressive New Atheism of the early 2000s advanced by thought leaders such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, a counter-movement appears to be growing among scientists, philosophers, and public intellectuals who view religious tradition not as a delusion to be eradicated but as a sustainable civilizational operating system.

As our politics splinter along gender – with women increasingly forming the base for Democrats and men, for Republicans – it is men who are leading the return to church. Reversing a 25-year-long trend, men reported higher church attendance than women in 2025. This growing divide may continue to separate men and women, with grave implications at a time when rates of marriage and parenthood are declining.

Even in places where religion continues to decline, the remaining faithful are shifting away from more liberal faiths to those hewing closer to traditional values. For many, more orthodox sects provide existential security and create a sustainable sense of community.

As our report makes clear, the budding religious revival taking place in the U.S. reflects a global trend, especially strong in Africa, which is now the most demographically robust place on the planet.

The implications and promise of this trend cannot be overstated. Data show that religious communities function as potent engines of human capital accumulation, risk mitigation, and social capital. These mechanisms effectively propel adherents up the socioeconomic ladder.

There is considerable evidence that faith is again gaining adherents, even in Europe. Last year, for example, there was a 45% increase in the number of people baptized in France. In the U.K., according to an April study by the Bible Society, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds saying they attended church at least monthly has jumped from 4% in 2018 to 16% today. Among young men, it’s increased 21%. Most of this growth is concentrated among Catholics and Pentecostals; the Bible Society suggests there are now more than 2 million more people attending church than in the last decade.

Spiritual Hunger

In the U.S., there are also signs of spreading spiritual hunger, according to Pew. Relatively few “nones” identify as either atheist or agnostic but consider themselves spiritual outside organized faith. One recent survey showed young people are increasingly embracing a higher power, often using the internet to access traditional beliefs. Research also suggests that most Gen Z teens are interested in learning more about Jesus, with younger cohorts leading the way in the growth of new commitments.

This is particularly marked among men, marking the closing of the so-called “God Gap” between the sexes. In both the U.S. and the U.K., Gen Z men are now retaining or adopting Christian identity at rates equal to or higher than their female peers. Many young men report feeling culturally dislocated or villainized by progressive secular discourse regarding masculinity. Traditional forms of Christianity, particularly Catholicism and Orthodoxy, offer a narrative of responsibility, sacrifice, and hierarchy that appeals to men seeking a defined role in a fluid world.

Public intellectuals like Jordan Peterson have played a crucial role in re-enchanting the Bible for a secular male audience. By framing biblical narratives as psychological maps for meaning rather than just metaphysical claims, they create an on-ramp for secular men to enter religious spaces. The internet has further facilitated this through the rise of digital orthodoxy, where the aesthetic of antiquity and rigorous discipline appeals to young men to the spiritual vacuity of modern life.

More surprising may be the nascent embrace of religion by scientists and other learned classes. In the early 2000s, the New Atheism gained traction for the view casting religion as a dangerous delusion. By 2025, this movement has largely exhausted itself, replaced by nuanced curiosity and, in some cases, a robust defense of religion among the epistemic elite.

Longitudinal research by sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund, based on surveys of scientists in eight regions, including the U.S., the U.K., Turkey, India, and Taiwan, reveals that scientists in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and India are often more religious than the general public. They view science and religion as overlapping or independent spheres, not enemies.

This perspective is emerging in the U.S. as well. Although still a distinct minority, younger scientists under the age of 35 are more likely to attend religious services than the older baby boomer cohort, suggesting that the rigid secularism of the academy is softening with the new generation. Even two decades ago, only 15% of scientists considered religion in conflict with science, while 70% did not see that conflict.

There are even signs of a revival in the technological heartland of secular America – Silicon Valley. Leading figures, including Pat Gelsinger, former head of Intel, Gary Tan, CEO of Y Incubator, and the venture capitalist Peter Theil openly embrace Christianity. The world’s most important innovator, Elon Musk, has recently become more public in his embrace of Christianity, which he described as “ a religion of curiosity” and “greater enlightenment.”

Membership at Our Lady of Peace Church and Shrine in Santa Clara has risen to more than 3,000 families, according to Father Brian Dinkel, who said the Catholic church hears an estimated 50,000 confessions a year. “People who may be doing well also want something more,” notes Father Dinkel. “Our people work at Google and Apple, but there’s a real search for the truth beyond tech.”

Orthodoxy Flourishing

Even amidst a fledgling religious revival, mainline Protestantism, once a primary cultural and political pillar of American life, is in freefall. Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and others now account for less than 11% of the population, down 40% since 2007, according to the Pew Religious Landscape Study. Since 1960, for example, the Episcopalian share of the population has dropped by two-thirds, the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ by even more. Lutherans and even Baptists have seen their share shrink by 50%.

More recently, traditional faiths, such as Greek Orthodoxy, have done particularly well. A survey of Orthodox churches around the country found that parishes saw a 78% increase in converts in 2022, compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019. And while historically men and women converted in equal numbers, vastly more men have joined the church since 2020. The average age of attendees is 42, with 62% between 18 and 45. That’s significantly younger than other major traditions.

The appeal of Greek Orthodoxy, notes religious intellectual and convert Matt Mattingly, actually lies not in politics or race, but in ancient values. Mattingly, himself a convert, notes in conversations with recent American converts, “I have talked with, I would estimate, 100+ young men headed into Orthodoxy in the past decade or so. It is true that most are strong supporters of this ancient faith’s teachings on marriage, family, sexuality, and gender. Many of these single men are highly motivated to get married and start families. Yes, they are worried about trends in American life and many mainline pews.

Even more ascendant are the Pentecostals, who emphasize direct contact with God. Their numbers have swelled, particularly among immigrants and in the developing world, as well as in the U.S. By some accounts, it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, with over 600 million adherents today and projected to reach one billion by 2050.

Similarly, among Jews, reform and even conservative synagogues are struggling while those of Orthodox Judaism, particularly the thriving Chabad movement, have gained both members and influence. Critically, it has enjoyed the greatest growth in engagement since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In contrast to Chabad’s assertive embrace of the Jewish state, some progressive reform rabbis have embraced anti-Zionism, even in the face of overwhelming support among Jews for Israel. Today, Orthodoxy represents one in seven Jews, but by 2040, that is projected to be one in five.

Elite Marker

A central tenet of secularization theory was that higher education would inevitably lead to lower religiosity. This pattern still holds in Europe, but the 2022-2023 Cooperative Election Study, which included nearly 85,000 respondents, indicates a positive correlation between educational attainment and religious attendance in the United States. High school graduates report attending religious services weekly at a rate of approximately 23%, whereas graduate degree holders report attending weekly at a rate of approximately 30%.

This suggests that religion is becoming an elite marker in America.[i] Increasingly, at least in the U.S., religious affiliation has become a form of elite social behavior associated with stability, community leadership, and bourgeois respectability. Indeed, a deep dive into the data shows that, over the past 15 years, religiously engaged people have become more likely to be well-educated, while atheists are less so. Generally, the nones tend to be somewhat less schooled than their more religious counterparts.

These findings shatter the notion that religious people are generally less curious, less ambitious, and less intelligent than their non-believing counterparts. Religious groups such as Jews and Hindus, as well as Episcopalians, also outperform atheists and agnostics, while many others, such as Mormons, Lutherans, and other Protestant groups, do as well.

Nowhere is the efficacy of religion more obvious than among poorer Americans. Inner-city boys who attend religious school are twice as likely to graduate from college as their socio-economic counterparts in public schools, notes Tulane sociologist Ilana Horwitz. Critical here, notes Horwitz, are the attributes of the religiously engaged, such as respect for elders and learning, with the deepest divergence felt among working- and middle-class children.

This may be one reason enrollment in private Christian schools has shot up across the nation in recent years. The K-12 enrollment at the Association of Christian Schools International, “one of the country’s largest networks of evangelical schools,” increased 12% between 2019-20 and 2020-21. Since then, particularly during and after the pandemic, private schools, mostly religious, gained 300,000 new students between 2019 and 2023 while public schools lost 1.2 million.

That jump mirrors other migrations out of public school systems, including a doubling in the percentage of kids being homeschooled. In the 2019-20 school year, 6% of all American students, some 3.5 million, attended religious schools. The rise of voucher programs, including in such large states as Texas and Florida, has largely benefited religiously oriented schools.

Pathway to Success

One subtle effect, most importantly for the poor, is that religious institutions provide a connection to the more affluent. This is a critical factor for success as outlined in the “Social Capital Atlas” project led by Harvard economist Raj Chetty. Utilizing privacy-protected data from 21 billion Facebook friendships linked to tax records and census data, the report found the degree of social interaction between low-income and high-income individuals as the single strongest predictor of whether a poor child would rise out of poverty. High exposure to wealthier peers increases lifetime earnings by an average of 20%.

Chetty’s team found that poorer people associate more with the affluent at religious institutions than at secular institutions like high schools, colleges, and workplaces. A low-income individual attending a religious congregation is significantly more likely to form a meaningful friendship with a high-income congregant than they would be in a workplace, school, or neighborhood group.

Perhaps most critically, religion provides a sense of community and ties that are more tangible than those found online, at school, or in the workplace. For instance, just 10% of religious observants say they have no close friends; the number almost doubles for those who have no faith. For young families, in particular, the religious community offers a village in which to raise children in an era of atomized parenting. This functional utility is a major driver of individuals returning to church in their thirties.

The church, notes Aaron Renn, a leading protestant intellectual, provides a mechanism, particularly for the young, to escape the loneliness and alienation associated with the “negative world.” Even though plagued at times by racial and ethnic division, the church’s role was “not merely socially useful but as “part of a gospel obligation.”

Three-quarters of those who attend church weekly give to the poor, compared with 41% of non-observants. Overall, 73% of all charitable contributions come from religious sources, while 60% of all beds for the homeless are from faith-based institutions.

Indeed, when volunteerism has been on a decline among the young, the young religious are more likely to perform community work than their nonreligious Gen Z counterparts. Data from a nationally representative survey of nearly 2,000 young adults ages 18 to 25 coordinated by Neighborly Faith reveals that half of religious Gen Zers report volunteering in the community often or very often, compared with 30% of slightly religious Gen Zers and just 21% of not religious Gen Zers.

In the end, our report finds that the growing evidence of religion’s basic utility, including its provision of a spiritual anchor, seems likely to grow, by offering a viable alternative to hyper-competition and individualism rife in secular-driven societies.