Bible Society has pulled its controversial 'Quiet Revival' report which claimed that Gen Z was returning to church in surprising numbers.
The report was based on polling conducted on its behalf by YouGov and sparked much interest at the prospect of a resurgence of interest in Christianity after years of falling church attendance.
According to the findings, in 2024 around 12% of adults had attended church at least once a month, up from just 8% in 2018. Among men aged 18-24 this had allegedly risen to over a fifth - from just 4% of that demographic in 2018.
The numbers and methodology were quickly questioned, however, including on this website, with apologist David Robertson noting that attendance data from the Church of England and Catholic Church in England and Wales showed decline in the same period.
Respected blogger, The Church Mouse, also came out as a "Quiet Revival sceptic" and made similar observations: "While Mouse would love to believe that people are flocking back to church, his instant reaction was that it simply didn't fit with the data we have from every other reliable source. Most importantly, the actual counting of bums in seats at all the major denominations. In fact, over 70% of the growth the Bible Society report claims to have spotted comes from two denominations which are self-reporting that they are shrinking."
Researchers like David Voas, a social scientist from University College London, argued that while church attendance rebounded modestly post-Covid, it had not returned to earlier levels.
More recently, the esteemed Pew Research Center in the US challenged the report because of its reliance on “opt-in” surveys which are based on volunteers who sign up through adverts, mailing lists or online panels rather than being randomly selected from the population. Pew claimed that large-scale surveys based on random samples showed no clear sign of a sustained Christian revival among young adults.
Humanists UK had even called for The Quiet Revival to be withdrawn.
Despite these challenges, Bible Society had until now stood by its findings, saying it had been "conducted to the highest standards of polling reliability".
It has now announced that the report is being pulled after it was informed by YouGov that the data was "faulty".
Bible Society said the Quiet Revival report "can no longer be regarded as a reliable source of information about the spiritual landscape in Britain".
Its CEO, Paul Williams, said in a statement, "Over a 15-month period, Bible Society repeatedly sought and received assurances from YouGov, regarding both the robustness of the methodology and the reliability of the report’s conclusions.
"It was only at the beginning of March that YouGov confirmed that it failed to activate key quality control technologies that protect the sample from a wide range of errors and this undermines the reliability of the results.
"We are therefore deeply disappointed that YouGov not only made an error but also that it only discovered this so recently. We are grateful that YouGov’s Chief Executive Officer Stephan Shakespeare has personally apologised. "
YouGov CEO Stephan Shakespeare said: "YouGov take full responsibility for the outputs of the original 2024 research, and we apologise for what has happened. We would like to stress that Bible Society has at all times accurately and responsibly reported the data we supplied to them."
As was announced previously, YouGov will repeat the Quiet Revival study later this year, although Bible Society said it would conduct "a broad programme of research ... using a range of methodologies".
It asserted that not all of the findings from the original report are wrong and that it has released a new, replacement report called 'The Quiet Revival one year on: what's the story?'.
That report claims that "the default position on questions of religious identity is shifting from ‘Christian’ to ‘no religion’", that "Christianity in Britain is experiencing both a decline in nominal faith, and a growth in active faith," and that "increased Bible sales, baptisms, reports of increased church attendance and a surge in individual testimonies all point toward substantial new conversion to Christian faith in recent years".
"We would wish to stress that YouGov's error does not mean that all of the findings were wrong – it means that we cannot reliably support those findings on the basis of this survey," Bible Society said.
"There is in fact a very positive story to tell. Over the past year we have seen an unprecedented public conversation about Christianity, with countless stories of a spiritual awakening among Gen Z, alongside greatly increased Bible sales in the UK, growing numbers of adult baptisms and confirmations, and increased attendance at evangelism courses."
It added, "While religious identity overall is shifting from ‘Christian’ to ‘no religion’, Christianity in Britain appears to be moving from a declining nominal faith to a committed and active one, as cultural shifts – especially among younger people – encourage a more proactive search for identity, meaning and purpose."
