New research from Barna Group, as part of their ongoing State of the Church initiative with Gloo, reveals a surprising shift: Millennials and Gen Z are driving a resurgence in church attendance. As reports emerge of spiritual interest, rising faith activity, signs of revival—including Barna’s analysis of the recent rise in commitments to Jesus—churchgoing frequency is another improving trend among Millennials and Gen Z in the U.S. While overall church attendance trends have been flat in recent years, the return to church among the next generation stands out as a powerful sign of rising openness to faith.
The headline: Millennials and Gen Z Christians are attending church more frequently than before and much more often than are older generations. The typical Gen Z churchgoer now attends 1.9 weekends per month, while Millennial churchgoers average 1.8 times—a steady upward shift since the lows seen during the pandemic.
These are easily the highest rates of church attendance among young Christians since they first hit Barna’s tracking.
Daniel Copeland, Barna’s vice president of research, said, “We were able to analyze our data in a fresh way to show what many pastors feel—that even really regular churchgoers do not attend that often. Among all churched adults, we found that they attend, on average, 1.6 times per month, or roughly two out of every five weekends. This new analysis of the tracking data helps us better understand the frustrations pastors feel when they are trying to build momentum for their congregations, such as series-based preaching and mobilizing volunteers.”
“Even so, the fact that young people are showing up more frequently than before is not a typical trend,” Copeland explained. “It’s typically older adults who are the most loyal churchgoers. This data represents good news for church leaders and adds to the picture that spiritual renewal is shaping Gen Z and Millennials today.”
The Churchgoing Spike
Where is this renewal coming from? For decades, older adults—Boomers and Elders—were the most reliable churchgoers. Today, the pattern has shifted. Gen Z and Millennials, often labeled as disinterested in faith, show the highest levels of regular attendance.
The following chart depicts the degree to which frequent churchgoing has steadily risen among Millennial and Gen Z. In 2020, the average was close to one weekend per month. Now, those rates are up nearly one extra weekend a month, nearly double the rates of just five years ago.
(Note that the rates of Gen Z churchgoing in 2017 and 2018 are higher due to the fact that Gen Zers at that time were just becoming old enough to be counted in Barna’s adult sampling. In other words, those years only represent 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds, and their data would be more likely to mirror their parents’ religious activities.)
