(Photo: Unsplash/Aaron Owens)
Plans are under way to revisit one of the most debated religion surveys in recent years, as YouGov prepares to repeat its research into church attendance later this year following growing scrutiny of claims about a “quiet revival” in Britain.
The original findings were published in April 2025 in a report by Bible Society titled ‘The Quiet Revival’. Drawing on two YouGov surveys, the report indicated that the proportion of adults in England and Wales who both identify as Christian and attend church no less than once a month had risen from 8% in 2018 to 12% in 2024.
Among 18–24-year-olds, the figure reportedly increased from 4% to 16%, with more than a fifth of young men in that age bracket said to be attending monthly – a particularly sharp rise. Women of the same age group were also reported to have increased attendance, from 4% to 12%.
The research further suggested that around a third of 18 to 24-year-old non-churchgoers would consider going if invited by a friend, and a quarter would like to know more about the Bible – the highest level of curiosity recorded among any age group.
At the time, report co-author, Bible Society’s Dr Rhiannon McAleer, described the findings as “striking”, saying they reversed the assumption that the Church in England and Wales was in terminal decline.
The claims generated widespread media attention and enthusiasm among church leaders, and the report was even cited in Parliament by MP Danny Kruger as evidence that Christianity was far from declining.
However, the findings have since been challenged by leading sociologists and polling experts, who argue that they conflict with longer-term data.
Emeritus professor of social science at University College London David Voas has been a prominent critic.
He argued that if such growth were real, it would amount to “literally millions of new churchgoers” who would have had to be “very quiet indeed, not to say invisible, to have escaped our notice”, the BBC reports.
Writing separately in The Telegraph, he stated that “the statistical evidence is clear: churchgoing is going down, not up”.
Critics point in particular to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), which uses random probability sampling and is widely regarded as a gold-standard study.
The most recent BSA data show that the proportion of adults identifying as Christian and attending church at least monthly fell from 12% in 2018 to 9% in 2024.
Among young adults, monthly attendance remains around 6–7% and below pre-pandemic levels.
Professor Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow at NatCen, has expressed caution about drawing bold conclusions from two isolated survey points.
He told the BBC that his organisation’s “successive readings” showing consistent trends year after year give him greater confidence in the BSA findings and said that, had he been presented with the YouGov data alone, he would have asked: “Are you sure? Because if it doesn’t look like a duck, it may not be a duck.”
The debate has also attracted international attention.
The Pew Research Center recently published an analysis questioning whether headlines about a British Christian revival are underpinned by the strongest obtainable data.
Pew argued that many revival claims rely on “opt-in” online surveys, which it said can produce different results from large, randomly sampled household studies.
It pointed to the fact that figures drawn from the UK Labour Force Survey show that Christian identification among adults has continued to fall overall, from 54% in 2018 to 44% in summer 2025, while less than 28% of 18 to 34 year olds now identify as Christian, down from 37% in 2018, according to Pew’s analysis.
Pew concluded that claims of a broad-based revival among young adults are not supported by the most robust data currently available.
Dr Conrad Hackett, Pew’s senior demographer, in comments to the BBC, warned that repeated assertions of revival risk creating “a very misleading narrative”, particularly when similar surveys internationally cite one another as evidence.
Humanists UK has gone as far as to says that ‘The Quiet Revival’ report should be retracted.
Bible Society, however, has stood firmly by its findings.
A spokesman recently said that the report “is based on a high-quality YouGov survey which uses a tried and trusted methodology”.
“YouGov is meticulous in controlling for bias in responses. There’s no such thing as a perfect survey, but there’s no reason to think that ‘opt-in’ surveys are inherently unreliable,” he added.
Addressing concerns about bogus or AI-generated responses to the BBC, Dr Rhiannon McAleer said the team had carefully examined the roughly 100-question survey and found responses consistent and credible.
YouGov has also defended its research, telling the BBC that it maintains its own panel and uses identity checks, device fingerprinting, geolocation tools and reward oversight to prevent fraudulent participation.
Supporters of the revival narrative have pointed to wider indicators of spiritual interest, including industry data showing Bible sales rose sharply in 2025, with SPCK Group reporting record figures.
Publishing director at SPCK, Lauren Windle, has suggested the surge reflects growing engagement among younger readers.
“Maybe the generation that has everything wants more – more real, more truthful, more consistent, more outward facing, more generous and more peaceful. More God-like,” she said.
Church leaders such as Alpha founder Nicky Gumbel have also spoken of unusually full services, while Rachel Jordan-Wolf of Hope Together has described increased spiritual curiosity among young adults.
Bible Society further claimed that Pew’s own global research found levels of religiosity comparable to, or marginally greater than, YouGov’s figures.
With YouGov set to repeat the study later this year, Christians and researchers alike will be watching closely to see whether the so-called “quiet revival” is real.
