Adults 23-26 are America’s least religious age group: Study

( NewsNation ) — More U.S. adults are attending religious services than during the pandemic, but the country’s youngest adults differ on religion depending on when they were born, according to new surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Among adults ages 18-22, around 41 percent said they attend services at least once or twice a month, compared with 33 percent of all U.S. adults. But among those slightly older, between the ages of 23-26, that share is 27 percent, among the lowest of any group.

Attendance is up, but signs of religious revival limited

The findings come amid media reports of a possible religious revival among young Americans, especially young conservative men. An April Gallup poll showed more young men in the U.S. saying religion was “very important” in their lives than young women. President Trump has also often spoken of a revival in religiosity among young people in the U.S.

According to Pew , there was a sharp rise in the share of U.S. adults who said religion was gaining influence in American life between 2024 and 2025.

Pew’s data offers only partial support of that idea. While adults aged 18-22 report spending more time attending services, they report praying less and rank religion as a less important priority, according to the surveys. They are also no more religious than people the same age were in 2014, and less religious than people that age were in 2007.

The second-youngest group of adults surveyed, those between 23 and 26, were the least religious age group on all the ways the researchers used to measure religiousness, including how often they prayed, how important they said religion was in their lives and whether they identified with a religion.

For the first time in the organization’s survey, men aged 18-22 reported going to services more often than women, though 35 percent of women in that age group report attending services at least monthly, which is more than women born in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Among the youngest Republicans in the 18-22 age group, 55 percent said they attended at least monthly, which made up a higher share than any other age group of Republicans, except the oldest group. The youngest Democrats surveyed also reported attending more often than Democrats born between the 1970s and the early 2000s.

Across all U.S. adults, religion has held steady since 2020 after experiencing a long decline. A June survey found 34 percent of people surveyed had attended services in person in the past month and 45 percent said they had attended in person or watched online or on TV, which both were the highest reported figures since Pew between asking in July 2020.

Pew: Religiosity among young Americans could indicate ‘turning point’ — or blip

Pew says the surveys paint “a complicated picture” of religion among young U.S. adults.

In the past, young adults who entered adulthood with relatively high levels of religious involvement tended to become less religious over time. Pew says it can’t yet tell if that’s also what the current numbers represent.

“Time will tell whether the relatively high religiousness of today’s youngest adults is a turning point or a blip in the data,” the study concluded.