Research shows that Generation Z participates in church activities much less than older generations, and higher engagement is linked to better flourishing and well-being.
The American Bible Society released the fifth chapter of its State of the Bible: USA 2025 report on Thursday. The survey defined church engagement as “the level of an individual’s involvement in the life, mission, and community of a local church,” which “includes learning and growing in one’s faith, meaningful relationships with people in the church, and active use of one’s gifts in the work of the church.”
Generation Z adults showed considerably lower levels of church engagement compared to their older counterparts. Only 35% of Gen Z adults agreed or strongly agreed that “In the past year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow in my faith.” In contrast, 46% of both millennials and baby boomers, along with elders, agreed or strongly agreed that they had opportunities to grow in their faith, while 48% of Gen X respondents felt the same.
Only 19% of Gen Z adults reported having a “best friend at church,” compared to 25% of Gen Xers, 26% of millennials, and 31% of baby boomers and elders. Just 27% of Gen Z adults agreed or strongly agreed that “there is someone in my church who encourages my spiritual development,” whereas 43% of respondents from all three older generations shared this view.
When asked if they agreed or strongly agreed that “my pastor, or other church leaders, seem to care about me as a person,” 42% of Gen Z adults responded affirmatively, compared to 44% of Gen Xers, 48% of millennials, and 49% of the oldest subgroup of adults.
Regarding opportunities to use their “gifts,” only 19% of Gen Z adults agreed or strongly agreed. This contrasts with 36% of millennials, 32% of Gen Xers, and 35% of boomers and elders who felt they had such opportunities.
Differences in church engagement also varied by denominational groups. A plurality of Evangelicals (43%) reported an average level of church engagement, followed by 39% who characterized their engagement as high, and 18% who considered it low. Similarly, 43% of Mainline Protestants reported an average level of church engagement. Compared to Evangelicals, a smaller proportion (30%) described their engagement as high, while a larger percentage (27%) believed it was low.
The research shows that a significant 62% of adherents to historically black denominations consider their church engagement to be high, while the remaining 38% are evenly divided between those with high and low church engagement.
In contrast, a smaller majority of Catholics, 51%, reported having an average level of church engagement, with only 12% indicating high church engagement. The remaining 37% of Catholics had low church engagement.
The study also found a correlation between higher church engagement and higher scores on the Human Flourishing Index, which assesses an individual's overall well-being on a scale from 0 to 10. This index considers factors such as happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, as well as close social relationships.
Specifically, in the domain of meaning and purpose, individuals with high church engagement scored an average of 8.5, compared to 7.6 for those with average engagement and 7.1 for those with low engagement. Similarly, in the close social relationships domain, high-engagement individuals had an average score of 8.1, whereas those with average engagement scored 7.5, and those with low engagement scored 6.7.
Regarding overall well-being, respondents with high church engagement reported significantly lower stress levels, with an average score of 5.8 on a 40-point scale, compared to 8.1 for those with average engagement and 9.4 for those with low engagement.
The phenomenon extends to anxiety levels, where high-engagement individuals reported a lower average score of 3.3 on a 20-point scale, versus 4.2 for respondents with average engagement and 4.7 for those with low engagement.
On a loneliness scale that ranges from 0 to 20, high-engagement respondents scored an average of 9.9, while those with average engagement recorded 11.0, and low-engagement respondents had a score of 12.4. On the hope scale ranging from 0 to 24, people with high church engagement scored an average of 20.0, while those with medium and low engagement scored 18.0 and 16.9, respectively.
