I’m delighted to see gen Z men in the UK flocking back to church – I just hope it’s for the right reasons

‘The fact that churches and cathedrals very often organise group charity work is a clear plus for young people.’ A food bank in St Margaret the Queen church, south London, November 2023. Photograph: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy

For decades, there has been a cultural narrative that the church is a declining institution, which has been backed up by data that shows fewer and fewer British people are attending services. You might expect churches to be busy over festivals like this past Easter weekend, or Christmas, but with otherwise sparse crowds and aging parishioners for the rest of the year.

However, a recent survey entitled The Quiet Revival, commissioned by the Bible Society and conducted by YouGov, shows that church attendance in England and Wales has actually increased by 50% over the past six years, and that young people aged between 18 and 24 are the second largest demographic in attendance (behind those who are 65 and over). The trend is especially strong with young men, with 21% aged 18 to 24 saying they attend church at least once a month, compared with 12% of young women. The data also shows that generation Z are particularly drawn to Roman Catholicism, which accounts for a significant rise in the number of Catholics in England, almost closing the overall gap between those who identify as Catholic and those who identify as Anglican.