Young men in the US are now more likely than young women to say religion plays a central role in their lives, marking a notable shift in long-standing patterns of religious belief, according to new analysis from Gallup.
The latest figures, covering 2024-2025, indicate that 42% of men aged 18 to 29 describe religion as “very important” to them. This represents a sharp rise from 28% recorded just two years earlier.
Over the same period, the share of young women expressing the same view has remained largely unchanged at around 30%.
The change reverses a trend that has persisted for decades.
At the start of the 2000s, young women were markedly more religious than their male counterparts, with a gap that reached 16 points during the early to mid-2000s.
That difference steadily narrowed over time before disappearing altogether and has now flipped.
Researchers note that the increase appears concentrated among younger men (between 18 and 29 years old), with little movement seen among older age groups.
In fact, levels of religious commitment among older men and women remain near historic lows, highlighting how distinct the shift is among younger males.
The resurgence among young men brings their reported level of religious importance back in line with peaks last seen around the turn of the millennium.
Meanwhile, young women are now the least likely among female age groups to prioritise religion, with just 29% saying it is very important - 18 points behind women aged 30 to 49 and less than half the rate of senior women.
Other indicators of religiosity show a similar pattern.
Attendance at religious services at least once a week or month among young men has risen to 40%, up from roughly a third in the early 2020s and reaching its highest level in more than a decade.
Young women have also seen a modest increase, with 39% reporting regular attendance, although that figure still sits far beneath the levels recorded in the early 2000s. This leaves the two groups effectively level on this measure.
However, the alignment is not uniform across age groups. Young men’s attendance is now much closer to that of older men - separated by only a small margin of 4 points - whereas young women remain considerably further (12 points) behind older women, underlining a growing divide between younger women and the wider population.
Religious identity, however, has changed less dramatically, with 63% of young men saying they belong to a faith tradition, a figure that has remained stable in recent years but is higher than the lows recorded in the mid-2010s.
Among young women, identification has edged downward, now sitting at about 60%, giving young men a slight lead.
The shift is not evenly distributed across the population.
Gallup’s analysts point to political affiliation as a key factor, with the rise in religious engagement particularly pronounced among young men who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.
Attendance has increased by seven and eight points among young Republican men and women respectively, as well as 3 points among young Democratic men, while young Democratic women have seen little movement since 2022 to 2023.
These political patterns help explain the overall trend.
Young men are more likely to identify as or lean Republican (48% vs 41%), while young women are more likely to align with the Democratic Party (60% vs 27%).
As a result, rising religiosity among Republican-leaning young men has had a stronger effect on overall male trends.
Despite these changes, the overall picture of religion in the US remains one of long-term decline. Across the population as a whole, measures such as religious importance, affiliation and attendance continue to hover near historic lows.
Even so, the recent surge among young men stands out as a rare countertrend. Whether this represents a lasting realignment or a short-term fluctuation remains unclear, with future Gallup polling expected to determine if the shift endures.
