You kind of have to pity the Zoomers: they’re a generation who were subjected to Long March indoctrination for their entire lives. From long daycare (75 per cent of children, 18 years ago) to university, they’ve been browbeaten, fingerwagged and bullied with rainbow this and ‘First Nations’ that ’til it’s a wonder they can think at all.
Or is it as bleak as all that?
Kids are nothing if not contrary, as we all know. If the old fogeys tell them not to jump off a cliff, they’ll go right ahead and do it (don’t pretend you were any different). That and a heapin’ helpin’ of familiarity breeding contempt is apparently helping to foster a remarkable turnaround.
In boys, most notably. A startling gender divide has emerged in the last 10 years, with boys adopting more and more ‘right wing’ (i.e., normal) views, while the girls mostly remain dutifully woke. Part of that is typical young male orneriness: the more their female teachers clutch their pearls over Andrew Tate, the more boys are likely to think, ‘Well… cool…’
Similarly the rise of militant New Atheism a decade ago has not only fallen from its once culturally dominant peak, the kids are giving the finger to the heathens and going to church in increasing numbers.
Figures from YouGov’s bi-annual tracker revealed that belief in God among 18- to 24-year-olds has almost tripled in just three-and-a-half years, rising from 16 per cent in August 2021 to 45 per cent in January 2025.
While their generational forebears, the Millennials, have also increased in religiosity, their rise in belief from 21 per cent to 33 per cent is much more modest.
The kids aren’t just paying lip-service, either: they’re planting bums on pews. And not just for weddings and funerals – regular churchgoing is rapidly rising for the young. Monthly churchgoing in Britain rose from 3.7 million to 5.8 million in just six years.
Where once churches were the sole preserve of the elderly, young people are flocking back to Sunday service.
See the full YouGov Data breakdown of 18- to 24-year-olds below:
2021: 16 per cent
2022: 19 per cent
2023: 34 per cent
2024: 39 per cent
2025: 45 per cent
More than half of 18- to 24-year-olds say they have engaged in a spiritual practice in the past six months, compared with 42 per cent of older generations.
Nearly a third express curiosity about learning more about the Bible, while 40 per cent pray at least once a month.
Tellingly, Bible sales in the UK have more than doubled since 2019.
If nothing else, kids are re-discovering that faith is a rock of comfort in a darkening world.
Naomi Boden, 13, who describes herself as a Christian with a strong faith, told the People’s Channel: “Problems in the world are becoming greater, people are looking for somewhere to turn with their problems.”
She also believes social media has impacted people’s decisions because influencers share their faith online.
Miss Boden added the trend will continue because “it’s no longer a case of getting looked down upon because of your religion, so people may feel more comfortable”.
She pointed out young people today turn to Christianity for different reasons than the older generation, adding: “People might just have been Christians because their parents were, but nowadays the choice is more left to them”.
Once again, young men are leading the crusade, with church attending quintupling to 20 per cent in just six years.
Young women also witnessed a staggering rise, jumping from three per cent to 12 per cent.
The increase means that 18- to 24-year-olds now make up the second most likely age group to attend church regularly, according to the data.
However, there is also a marked gender divide in churchgoing, with 13 per cent of men attending, compared to just 10 per cent of women.
While opponents of mass immigration point to the rise of fundamentalist Islam as a leading problem, they miss that the epicentre of world Christianity today is Africa and South America. Pop into any large church on a Sunday and you’ll see no shortage of black and brown faces.
Ethnic diversity among Christians is also increasing, with official data showing that 32 per cent of 18- to 54-year-old churchgoers come from ethnic minorities, compared with 19 per cent overall.
What’s also notable is that the weak, woke Protestant churches are mostly missing out on the resurgence of Christianity. The young folk want that ol’ time religion, not rainbow-cassock wokeism at the pulpit. When we have senior Anglican clergy pandering to Islam, why would any young Christian bother with them?
Despite Britain’s Christian surge, the Anglican church has seen numbers fall from 41 per cent to 34 per cent since 2018.
Meanwhile, Roman Catholic attendance has grown from 23 per cent to 31 per cent, and Pentecostal attendance rose from four per cent to 10 per cent.
Among 18- to 34-year-old churchgoers, only one-in-five are Anglican, down from nearly one-in-three, compared with 41 per cent Catholic and 18 per cent Pentecostal.
After all, who wants I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter when they can have actual, honest-to-goodness butter?
As C S Lewis once wrote, “Spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.” It seems that young people have had enough of poison.
