Generation Z adults are more likely than older Americans to describe themselves as “religious,” even as many also engage in practices at odds with Christian teaching, according to a new survey. The Harris Poll released a survey Thursday based on responses from 2,136 U.S. adults collected July 1 to 4. The poll grouped respondents by generation: Generation Z (ages 18 to 29), millennials (30 to 45), Generation X (46 to 61) and baby boomers (62 and older).
Gen Z adults were the most likely to consider themselves religious and the least likely to describe themselves as neither religious nor spiritual. Thirty-three percent of Gen Z adults described themselves as “religious,” followed by 22% of Gen X adults, 19% of millennials and 18% of boomers. Meanwhile, 19% of Gen Z adults considered themselves “neither religious nor spiritual,” followed by millennials (20%), Gen X adults (21%) and boomers (23%).
“Gen Z self-identifies as the most religious generation in America, with the practices to back it up,” Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at The Harris Poll, said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. “But that doesn’t show you the whole story, because they aren’t choosing religion instead of everything else. They’re stacking it. Church on Sunday, manifestation on Wednesday, tarot on Friday.
The old assumption was that each generation picks faith less than the last. Gen Z picked more of everything.” Gen Z adults were more likely than older generations to engage in several spiritual activities. A majority of Gen Z adults (54%) said they “read scripture or religious texts” regularly in the past year, as did a similar share of millennials (53%).
Fewer than half of Gen X adults (48%) and boomers (43%) said they regularly read Scripture or religious texts. Nearly half of Gen Z adults (49%) regularly attended