RELATIVELY high levels of belief in God and experiences of transcendence have been reported by 18- to 34-year-olds, in a survey commissioned by the Policy Institute of King’s College, London.
This cohort was consistently more likely to respond affirmatively than older age groups when asked about feelings of thankfulness, awe, and wonder.
The report Grateful Britain?, published on Christmas Eve, draws on an Opinium survey of 2050 UK adults in October.
One quarter (27 per cent) said that they felt “profound awe or wonder at the universe or nature” at least weekly. This rose to 38 per cent for those who said that they belonged to a religion, and 36 per cent for the youngest cohort (18 to 34). Overall, 12 per cent said that they never had such feelings.
Almost one quarter (22 per cent) of the respondents said that they felt “connected to all people or living things” at least once a week, but a slightly greater share — 24 per cent — said that they never experienced such a feeling. This fell to 16 per cent in the youngest cohort.
More than half of the respondents (54 per cent) reported that “at one point or another they’ve felt personally guided or watched over by something or someone.” One third (32 per cent) said that they “never” felt this. This rose to 47 per cent for those who did not belong to a religion.
A similar proportion (53 per cent) reported believing that there was a “guiding purpose in life, including their own life”, compared with 31 per cent who did not. The youngest cohort were much more likely to believe this (69 per cent).
One in five (22 per cent) said that they felt “suddenly and deeply thankful to be alive” at least weekly, rising to 36 per cent of the 18-to-34s.
Most respondents said that they were thankful for their own life, others in their lives, and all of life in general. When asked “Who or what do you feel thankful to?”, the most popular answer was “nature” (34 per cent), followed by “other people” and “my own inner self” (both 31 per cent), and “God” (28 per cent). Eighteen- to 34-year-olds were about twice as likely as older categories to say that they felt thankful to God, at 42 per cent.
In total, 59 per cent of the respondents said that they did not think that belief in God or a Higher Power was essential for people to feel thankful for life or existence.
The report includes commentary under the title “Are young people really more thankful, religious and spiritual?” which sounds a sceptical note.
A YouGov long-term tracker found that the proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds who said that they believed that there was a God had roughly doubled in recent years, from 19 per cent in 2022 to 37 per cent in 2025.
But the report argues that “we get quite different indications of belief in larger, more expensive studies using random probability methods, rather than the opt-in panels typically used in polling.” It goes on to compare the results of the Opinium survey with the Policy Institute’s World Values Survey in the UK, last conducted in 2022.
In the Opinium survey, 39 per cent of the respondents said that they “believe in God to some extent”, rising to 52 per cent in the youngest cohort. This group was the least likely to say that they were not religious at all (33 per cent) or spiritual at all (21 per cent).
In the World Values Survey, belief in life after death among 18- to 34-year-olds was nine percentage points lower, and belief in heaven was 14 percentage points lower.
The report also notes that, in the British Social Attitudes survey of 2024, more than 60 per cent of the 18-to-34s identified as having “no religion” — the highest of any cohort.
It continues: “This does not mean there are no shifts happening among the young. . . Part of the effect may be due to the changing composition of young people, particularly the increased ethnic and religious diversity among younger generations. . .
“While the reasons online samples may over-represent religious belief among young people are understandable (that it is an unusual population of young people who will want to join online panels), it is less clear why this has changed so markedly in such a short period of time: as recently as 2022, the YouGov tracker of belief in God showed nothing unusual in young people’s beliefs.”
Responding to the report on Tuesday, the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr Michael Volland, said: “We are hearing from churches across the region and more widely that there are signs of a new openness to faith including — or even especially — from the younger generation.”
The Church of England had “a wonderful opportunity to nurture the spiritual curiosity of young people by continuing to be deliberate about welcome and by creating spaces for encounter with the living God; spaces where those who gather can reflect on life’s biggest questions as they draw on a deep well of scriptural wisdom,” he said. “In my own diocese we are seeing young people arrive at churches with a desire to join in and find out more. They are hungry for faith, for meaning, for hope and to belong to a community that practises the radical, life-giving teaching of Jesus.”
Debbie Clinton, who heads the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy work, said: “We are noticing that a generation once labelled spiritually disengaged is beginning to rewrite the narrative. Many churches are reporting young adults newly attending, with a hunger for authentic faith and purpose —with stories of numbers of baptisms and confirmations of young adults in a wide range of traditions and contexts. Testimonies we hear certainly reflect the thankfulness, awe and wonder of the gospel.”
Church House had commissioned qualitative research to understand new church-going patterns among young adults in the C of E, she said, with plans to share the findings during the first half of 2026.
A Bible Society spokesman described the Opinium data as “another high-quality survey from a respected pollster showing — like Bible Society’s The Quiet Revival report — greater openness among young adults not only to organised religion, but to wider aspects of spirituality and transcendence.”
The World Values Survey showed “a shift in spirituality among young adults as early as 2022, and largely aligns with our own data,” he said. “It’s clear from multiple data sources that this has only accelerated since then, and while different methodologies will produce different results, the picture emerging is compelling.”
Noting that the Policy Institute “remains sceptical about the findings of its own report,” he suggested that it “seems vanishingly improbable that a rise in religious practice and belief in God could be accounted for simply by religious young people being more likely to join survey panels since 2022”.
The Church Times event “Springtime for the Church of England: Where are we seeing growth?” on 31 January will include Dr Ken Eames, of the C of E’s Research and Statistics Unit, discussing what light church data shed on the subject. To book tickets, click here.
