by Tola Mbakwe\/ Premier Christian News<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statistics suggesting a rise in church attendance among the Gen Z generation, coining the widely used term \u201cthe quiet revival\u201d, have now been found to be unreliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
YouGov, which carried out the two surveys in 2024 after being commissioned by the Bible Society, has apologised after admitting it recently found major flaws in its data collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said that, due to human error, a range of quality control technologies were not activated. These systems are designed to filter out respondents outside the country of study, as well as those who attempt the survey multiple times or complete it too quickly or inattentively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
YouGov CEO Stephan Shakespeare said: \u201cYouGov takes full responsibility for the outputs of the original 2024 research, and we apologise for what has happened. We would like to stress that the Bible Society has at all times accurately and responsibly reported the data we supplied to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Quiet Revival <\/em>report, published in April 2025, claimed that monthly church attendance among adults in England and Wales rose from 8% in 2018 to 12% in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among 18 to 24-year-olds, the increase was said to be even more dramatic \u2014 from 4% to 16% \u2014 with young men reportedly leading the surge. Attendance among young women in the same age group was said to have risen from 4% to 12%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bible Society has now retracted the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Williams, CEO of the charity, said it is \u201cfrustrating\u201d and \u201cdisappointing\u201d to discover the data underpinning the popular report could be inaccurate, especially after the Bible Society repeatedly sought and received assurances from YouGov about the robustness and reliability of the conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams told Premier Christian News<\/em> that, although they feel wronged by YouGov, the Bible Society will not take legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have acknowledged the problem. They\u2019ve accepted full responsibility. They\u2019ve been clear with us about their mistakes and what they did wrong. I think no great purpose is served by us taking legal action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n YouGov also admitted it began more closely checking the accuracy of its data following ongoing scepticism from researchers and organisations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, David Voas, professor of social science at University College London, told the BBC<\/em> that if the growth suggested in the data were genuine, it would amount to \u201cliterally millions of new churchgoers\u201d who would have had to be \u201cvery quiet indeed \u2014 not to say invisible \u2014 to have escaped our notice\u201d. The Bible Society vehemently defended the report at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n YouGov has said it will carry out another comprehensive study on the growth of Christianity for the Bible Society free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n