As they grapple with a profound disconnection from their parents and older adults in general, nearly 40% of young adult women in Generation Z — those born between 1999 and 2015 — now identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to new data released by Barna Research.
The data from 2,000 adults and teenagers between the ages of 13 and 24 shows that 38% of Gen Z women (ages 18 to 24) currently identify as atheist, agnostic or say they have no faith at all. This is higher than the 32% of men in the same age group who said they are religiously unaffiliated.
The data was collected in the summer of 2023 and shared in a report published last week. The error margin for this data is 2.1 percentage points.
While Barna’s recent research has shown promising openness among Gen Z to explore spirituality and faith, including in Jesus, females were found to be the most likely to disengage from church, prayer and belief among young adults and teens.
Young adult Gen Z women reported the lowest rates of Bible reading, church attendance and prayer among their peers, the report said.
In general, some 73% of all Gen Z respondents report that they believe in God or a higher power, and 47% say they believe Jesus is the only way to God. When it comes to Gen Z young adult women, those who say they believe drops significantly.
Only 58% of women 18 to 24 report having prayed within the past week. That is much lower than the 63% of younger teenage girls and more than 70% of teenage boys who said they prayed. Only 31% of young adult women reported reading the Bible over the same period compared to 41% across all other Gen Z groups. Only 30% of them also reported attending church in the last seven days. It was the lowest of any demographic group in the survey.
This level of spiritual disengagement comes as other findings by Barna researchers have shown that Gen Z women are struggling with what they see as a lack of support from the adults in their lives including their parents.
Just 23% of Gen Z young adult women feel supported by their father compared to the 47% of younger teenage girls who feel that support. Only 36% of the cohort also reported feeling support from their mother compared to the 74% of younger teenage girls who feel that way. In general, only 32% of young adult women believe their parents even understand them. Just 33%, said they feel valued by older adults.
According to the report, 40% of Gen Z women agree that “older people don’t seem to understand the pressure my generation is under.”
“If we want to see change in Gen Z women’s spiritual trajectories, relationships are the place to start,” Daniel Copeland, Barna’s vice president of research, said. “Faith is a skill that must be modeled first, and strong, supportive relationships can bridge the gap between doubt and belief.”
Other Barna studies have shown that since the COVID-19 pandemic, men are starting to outpace women in other key spiritual indicators, such as church attendance. As part of its ongoing State of the Church initiative, Barna reported earlier this month that 43% of men reported attending church weekly, compared with 36% of women.
The gap in church attendance between men and women is the largest ever recorded by Barna since they began tracking the trend decades ago, marking a reversal of decades-long trends that saw women outpacing men in church attendance by a wide margin.
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