For Gen Z, faith in religion wanes
For Gen Z, faith in religion wanes
Never-before-seen Gallup and Walton Family Foundation data shows Gen Z is far less bullish on religion's positive impact on society than millennials were 20 years ago.
A note to readers
Today marks final edition in a series based on never-before-seen data points from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation’s Gen Z Panel, an ongoing partnership to examine young Americans’ experiences in and outside the classroom. These data sets have been pulled from prior research, but have not previously been reported on. Previously, I covered a generational shift in a desire to go to college, social and political views, and support for the death penalty, abortion, and extramarital children.
Thanks to a Walton Family Foundation grant, I’ve had the opportunity to conduct listening sessions with potential young voters. I’ll be doing much more of that and publishing anecdotal takeaways in the lead up to the 2024 election.
These quantitative data sets provide another vantage point into the psyche of today’s youngest potential voters. I hope you find them as interesting as I do.
For Gen Z, faith in religion’s positive impact on society wanes
Gen Z teens are nearly half as likely to believe religion has a positive impact on society than millennial teens were 20 years ago, according to a Gallup and Walton Family Foundation study conducted last fall. While just 16% of Gen Z teens ages 13-17 strongly agree that “most religious faiths make a positive contribution to society,” 30% of millennial teens said the same when they were their age.
Postsecondary Gen Z (many of whom likely no longer live with their parents) are even less likely to see religion’s positive impact on society (31%) than K-12 Gen Z teens (41%).
There was also a party divide — while 69% of Gen Z Republicans see the positive impact of religion on society, just 20% of Gen Z Democrats say the same.
This data is from the Gallup Walton Family Foundation ‘Gen Z Voices’ survey conducted between October 23 and November 1, 2023 — just weeks after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and as pro-Palestinian protests began to surge on college campuses across the country.
These protests reached a tipping point with a recent wave of campus encampments for Palestine — leading to high tension, police crackdowns, remote classes, and canceled commencement ceremonies.
While some have accused pro-Palestinian protestors of using antisemitic rhetoric, other Jewish students say they are a part of the Palestinian solidarity movement because of their faith. A March 2024 study from the Chicago Project on Security & Threats found that both Muslim and Jewish students worry about “personal danger” when it comes to their stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
In the U.S. religion has become a focal point in the campus conflict, with charged emotions as a result of religious identity on all sides. At Columbia in particular, a survey of students, professors, and others conducted by New York Magazine and the Columbia Spectator between April 26 and May 2, found that 33% of people believe antisemitism at Columbia is a problem, and 34% of people believe Islamophobia at Columbia is a problem — demonstrating the way religion and perceived bigotry based on one’s religion has seeped into campus culture.
Zooming out, in hopes of contextualizing the generational gap in views on religion’s impact on society big picture, I reached out to a number of young leaders to hear what they had to say. Beyond direct outreach, I posted on Instagram, asking if anyone wanted to weigh in. Here’s some of what they shared:
Manu Meel, 25, CEO of BridgeUSA
“What unites Gen Z across the board, is a skepticism of institutions across society. Gen Z has seen a lot of our institutions fail openly. And as a result, that skepticism I think translates to almost every institution in society being questioned and being mistrusted with religion being at the forefront,” said Meel.
“As it relates to what we’re seeing with Gaza, the question of religion becomes particularly pointed because a lot of young people can see that religion is a key source of that conflict… but while that decline in trust has implications for social glue, and the stickiness of religion, Gen Z also craves connection and social trust. So while there’s skepticism, they believe in wanting to connect and what that does is it creates opportunities for new institutions and new spaces, civil spaces to pop up,” he said.
Meel started BridgeUSA, a multi-partisan organization that works to bring students of different view points together for nuanced conversations on college campuses across the country.
Sam Weinberg, 23, executive director of Path to Progress
“The internet and social media, along with better educational standards, have made it clear to Gen Z that organized religion is too often a haven for bigotry and prejudice,” said Weinberg.
“In practice, many religions preach hope and salvation, two things that Gen Z is decidedly lacking. We look around and see gun violence, the climate crisis, police brutality, regressive abortion policies, and so much more. From my view, progress is happening and we’re better off than most people think, but our overall outlook as young people is pretty bleak, bordering on nihilistic. That means our perception of reality, whether you want to call it pessimism or realism, is often incompatible with religious doctrine.”
Elle Kalisz, 25
“Personally I find there to be an overwhelming sense of positivity that comes from religion in society. Having a sense of peace in the midst of chaos, sadness, happiness and simply divine timing is overwhelming beneficial, especially for young people. Religion is deeply rooted in tradition and shared culture that allows people to naturally approach situations and community with a sense of belonging or greater social fiber tying them together. Spirituality is extremely important for sense of self and greater adherence to a sense of collective society,” said Kalisz.
“I find it incredibly interesting that Gen Z has almost two sides when it comes to religion. There is push back on organized religion while a large part of Gen Z is fully embracing it. Meanwhile, there is a resurgence a sense of spirituality that isn’t organized religion (astrology, etc.) But it all stems from the same want for answers, internal peace, and a sense of self and divine understanding. Religion is personal and vital to being idealistic. Morality allows you to remain steadfast in the face of intense complexity and confusion.”
Beyond religion’s impact on society, the Gallup WFF research also included a section on racial prejudice. According to the findings, Gen Z teens are more than twice as likely than millennials were 20 years ago to say a lot of their close friends “are from a racial or ethnic group that is different” from theirs. While 37% of Gen Z teens ages 13-17 say a lot of their friends are from a racial or ethnic group that is different from theirs, just 18% of millennial teens said the same when they were their age.
Meanwhile, Gen Z teens are 13 points less likely to believe racial prejudice will impact their lives “a lot” than millennials were 20 years ago. While 25% of Gen Z teens ages 13-17 say they think racial prejudice will have a lot of influence on their future, 38% of millennial teens said the same when they were their age. However, 53% of Black Gen Zers still feel racial prejudice will have a lot of influence on their lives.
As Meel pointed out, members of Gen Z are craving connection, which he said, “manifests in a deep desire for young people to want to make the effort to see people that are different from them, learn from them.”
“The key trend here is that because Gen Z is the most diverse generation in the history of the United States purely due to demographic trends, diversity is a fact of life as opposed to a choice,” Meel said. “Because it's a fact of life, they have to figure out how to not only contend with it, but actually, cause it to lead to something productive.”
“A lot of older generations will talk about diversity, they talk about inclusion, and they get everybody to the table, but nothing actually happens at the table. It's not additive. It's just diversity for literally just the sake of adding people. Whereas with Gen Z, I think because of the fact of life that Gen Z is growing up with, they actually understand how to turn racial inclusion and diversity into something that actually manifests the statement of ‘E pluribus unum. Out of many one.’ The fact that young people have more connections with different friend groups, different races, and identities, it just positions the generation to be much more effective at steering a multiracial democracy. As long as we can channel our skepticism of institutions in a healthy way, as opposed to a nihilistic way,” he said — echoing Weinberg’s warning about Gen Z’s nihilism.
When it comes to a lack of trust in institutions, Claudia Nachega, who’s 19 and a student at Barnard, sees racial prejudice’s impact via politics and the law. She specifically critiqued the current Supreme Court (and specifically, justices appointed by former President Donald Trump) as a frontal force “undermin[ing] racial equality.”
“A colorblind constitution cannot challenge the injustices of the country’s intrinsically racialized history. This will hurt movements fighting for racial justice. As a young Black woman aspiring to attend law school, I was disappointed to see the Supreme Court strike down affirmative action. Young Black Americans, and many more people from marginalized backgrounds, will be dealing with the consequences of a far right Supreme Court for a long time to come.”
A bit about Gallup’s methodology
According to Gallup, they collected responses “via web survey, with invitations sent by email to members of the Gallup Panel, a probability-based panel that includes roughly 100,000 members." The respondents included 12-18-year-olds living at home with parents or guardians, as well as 18-26-year-olds. To reach the younger Gen Zers, Gallup said they, “contacted adult members of the Gallup Panel who indicated they have at least one child between the ages of 12 and 18 living in their home."
“This study explores comparisons to data collected across multiple waves of the Gallup Youth Survey conducted from 2003 through 2005, among 13- to 17-year-old millennials. For waves conducted during 2003 and 2004, the Gallup Youth Survey was conducted via web surveys, using an online research panel designed to be representative of the entire U.S. population. For the wave conducted in 2005, results are based on a combination of mail and web surveys with a randomly-selected national sample of 13- to 17-year-old teenagers from households in the Gallup Panel,” according to a Gallup spokesperson.
Both datasets were “weighted to correct for unequal selection probability and nonresponse; samples were weighted to match the U.S. population according to gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, educational attainment, and Census region,” Gallup said.