July 28, 2025

The Burge Report: Is Gen Z More Religiously Engaged than Their Parents?

31 minutes

New religious data in the United States was released recently, and Ryan Burge joins the show with Sam to discuss the details. In 2024, Gen Z showed relatively strong religious attendance compared to other generations. Twenty-four percent of Gen Z reported attending religious services weekly—two percentage points higher than both Millennials and Gen X. While 53% of Gen Z attend less than once a year, that’s actually the lowest percentage of infrequent attenders among all the generations analyzed.

What factors might be contributing to Gen Z’s higher weekly religious attendance compared to Millennials and Gen X?

How should churches and faith communities respond to the fact that Gen Z has the lowest percentage of people attending less than once a year?

Does Gen Z’s relatively strong attendance indicate a deeper spiritual engagement, or are other motivations at play (e.g., community, tradition, social influence)?

Resources:

Upward Sports

Upward Sports: Pickleball

Rooted

“Religion in 2024: The Plateau Is Real” by Ryan Burge

Ryan Burge

Rainer on Leadership Podcast: “Five Predictions We Got Wrong about the Future of the Church”

Church Answers Platinum Membership

FREE Research Report! New Surprising Insights

The Hope Initiative

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Learn more at www.Upward.org/ChurchAnswers.

The Rooted experience can help you create a discipleship culture that connects your people and leads to ongoing life change in Jesus. Rooted is…

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Visit experiencerooted.com/churchanswers for free resources to help you learn more, including the What is Rooted? video and a free download of the Rooted experience framework and Rooted Workbook sample.

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By Thom Rainer

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