Young men are growing more religious

Over the past year, a growing number of Gen Z men have taken a page from Hozier and gone back to church, according to new Gallup polling.

It’s been enough to flip a decades-long trend: for the first time in 50+ years, young men are now more likely than young women to prioritize religion.

By the numbers

Gallup found 42% of young men in the US now say religion is very important to them, up sharply from 28% in 2022-2023, while young women held steady at ~30% over the same period.

• With the jump, young men have returned to the high point of their expressed religiosity so far this century, roughly tying the 43% found in 2000-2001.
• On the flip side, older men and women of all age groups are at or near their historical lows.

Politics is part of the story: When it comes to Americans’ religious beliefs, Gallup found no strong differences by education or region of the country. But there was a clear contrast when it came to political identity:

• More than half of young Republicans (~55%) say they attend religious services at least monthly, with attendance rising by 7+ percentage points since 2022-23.
• But young Democrats’ religious attendance has remained mostly unchanged over that period, hovering around 30%.

Big picture: The religiosity of Americans as a whole across all age groups remains at or near an all-time low, based on Gallup’s long-term trends dating back 30+ years.