More US young men than young women say religion is important to them

Young men are now more likely than young women in the US to say religion plays a major role in their lives, according to the newest findings from Gallup.

Data covering 2024-2025 indicates that 42% of men ages 18 to 29 describe religion as very important to them, a significant rise from 28% in 2022-2023. In comparison, young women’s responses have remained largely unchanged over the same period, holding at roughly 30%.

In earlier measurements, young men and women were essentially tied on this indicator of religiosity. That balance has now shifted, with young men pulling ahead by a statistically meaningful margin. This increase among younger men stands out, especially since older men and women have shown little movement since 2022-2023.

With this recent jump, young men’s reported importance of religion has climbed back to levels not seen in about 25 years, nearly matching the 43% recorded in 2000-2001. Meanwhile, women across all age brackets, along with older men, are at or close to their lowest levels on record.

This pattern appears only among those aged 18 to 29. For individuals 30 and older, women still report higher levels of religiosity than men.

Young men’s views on religion now closely resemble those of men aged 30–49 and are just slightly below those of older men. Young women, on the other hand, now rank as the least religious group of women overall.

With only 29% saying religion is very important, women ages 18–29 fall 18 points behind women aged 30-49 and are less than half as likely as senior women to express strong religious importance. These conclusions are drawn from combined Gallup data collected every two years from 2000-2001 through 2024-2025.

Religious participation at church has also increased among young men. The share reporting attendance at services at least monthly rose by seven percentage points between 2022-2023 and 2024-2025, reaching 40% – the highest level since 2012-2013.

Among young women, attendance has also edged upward since 2022-2023, increasing by three points to 39%. Even so, this figure remains well below the higher levels seen in the early 2000s. In contrast, attendance rates among older men and women are currently at or near their lowest points.

There appeared to be a noticeable dip in the number of church attenders around 2020 that can be explained largely by the Covid pandemic, which is believed to also be partially responsible for the closure of many churches around the country during that time.

The study also looked at differences by political affiliation. Since 2022-2023, attendance has climbed by seven points among young Republican men, eight points among young Republican women, and three points among young Democratic men. Young Democratic women are the only group showing little change.

Over a longer timeframe, attendance among young Republican men has generally been rising since 2018-2019, whereas participation among young Democratic men has tended to decline.

One likely factor behind the growing interest in religion among young men is increasing feelings of loneliness, which were greatly exacerbated by a global pandemic that saw children and teens forced to switch to remote learning during pivotal years of social development.

Experts have noted a significant drop in how many close relationships men report. In the US, studies suggest that two-thirds of men aged 18 to 23 feel that nobody truly knows them; one-third have not interacted with anyone outside their household in the past week; only about one in five say they have dependable friends; and 69% of young men feel “no one cares if men are OK”.