No revival in sight: Church attendance in Britain remains below pre-pandemic levels, new BSA data confirms

New findings from the latest British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey confirm that church attendance among Christians in Britain has not recovered to pre-COVID levels, and that younger people show no signs of a religious revival.

Key findings

• The latest BSA confirms that just one in eight Christians (13%) say they attend a religious service at least once a week. This is the same figure previously reported on the basis of the 2024 survey. The figure is similar to the 12% recorded during the pandemic in 2021, and well below the 20% recorded in 2018, before the public health emergency.
• Only 5% of all British adults now attend a Christian service weekly, compared with 8% in 2018.
• Just 4% of those aged under 35 attend a Christian service at least once a week, in line with proportions recorded since 2017 (which range between 3% and 5%), with no evidence of a recent increase in church attendance.
• Weekly attendance among those aged 70 and over has halved since 2017, from 18% to 9% suggesting any apparent 'youthening' of congregations reflects a loss of older worshippers rather than an influx of younger ones.
• Among those who identify as Christian, those aged 18-34 are slightly more likely than those aged 55 and over to say they attend a service at least once a month. However, this was also the case before the pandemic, and is not necessarily evidence of a recent youth revival. Monthly attendance has fallen across all age groups since 2017.
• Non-Christian religious attendance, which appeared in our 2024 survey to have recovered to pre-pandemic levels, has fallen back again in the latest data, suggesting COVID-19 may have had a lasting impact on religious observance across all faith communities in Britain.

No Evidence of a Youth Revival

The latest BSA survey, conducted in autumn 2025, further challenges claims made by the Bible Society, based on YouGov research (since withdrawn), that younger Christians are leading a revival in religious observance. While it is true that those aged under 35 who identify as Christian are somewhat more likely than older Christians to attend services monthly, BSA data show that this pattern has been the same since well before the pandemic. It does not represent a revival. At the same time, monthly attendance among Christians aged under 35 stands at 26%, well below the average of 36% recorded in the three years before the pandemic. 

Meanwhile, the proportion of young people who identify as Christian at all stands at 25%, compared with 52% among those aged 55 and over.

The BSA data indicate that if congregations do appear to be getting younger, this is more likely to reflect a reduction in regular attendance among older Christians, than an increase among younger.

The 'Quiet Revival' laid to rest

The Bible Society's 'Quiet Revival' report, published last year on the basis of YouGov research, attracted widespread media coverage with its claim that Christian church attendance and particularly attendance among younger people was on the rise. Shortly before Easter this year, YouGov stated the research was flawed due to fraudulent survey responses. The latest BSA data confirm our previous finding [LINK to previous religion blog] that there is no evidence of a Christian revival among younger people in Britain.

Sir John Curtice: 

"The evidence from the British Social Attitudes survey is clear: there has been no revival in Christian observance in Britain. Church attendance remains below pre-pandemic levels across all age groups, and the suggestion that younger people are leading a religious renewal is not borne out by the data. COVID-19 appears to have had a more lasting effect on religious practice in Britain than many had hoped and that extends to faith communities beyond Christianity too."

Notes to editors

About the British Social Attitudes survey

The British Social Attitudes survey (BSA) has been running continuously since 1983 and is the UK's longest-running independent survey of social attitudes. It is conducted by the National Centre for Social Research and is considered the gold standard for tracking public opinion in Britain.

Data

Findings are drawn from the 2026 BSA survey, conducted in autumn 2025. Full tables and sample sizes are available on request.

For media enquiries, interview requests or full data tables, please contact:
Natasha Fox – Natasha.fox@natcen.ac.uk