A story that churchgoing within the UK had been present process a exceptional restoration, fueled by a rising sense of spirituality within the nation’s youth, seems to have been primarily based on a flawed premise.
A report that offered the premise for claims {that a} “quiet revival” was underway was withdrawn this week, after the polling group YouGov admitted that its knowledge contained doubtlessly fraudulent responses.
YouGov apologized and took “full responsibility” for the errors whereas the Bible Society, which commissioned the findings, has pulled its unique “Quiet Revival” report.
YouGov had primarily based its findings on two polls carried out on-line, one in 2018 and one other in 2024, surveying 19,101 and 13,146 adults respectively. Their report confirmed the proportion of individuals in England and Wales who stated they attended church as soon as a month or extra had risen from 8 per cent earlier than the pandemic to 12 per cent six years later. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, the polling confirmed attendance had elevated fourfold, from 4 per cent to 16 per cent.
Data launched by the Church of England since that polling got here out in April 2025 reveals that the truth is, whereas attendance ranges have been recovering, they continue to be under pre-pandemic ranges.
The YouGov polling generated important publicity and was cited as a core piece of proof difficult the long-term development away from churchgoing. Evangelical church buildings and commentators enthusiastically promoted the narrative.
But even on the time, some questioned the information. Tim Wyatt, a journalist who makes a speciality of spiritual affairs, instructed NCS he discovered the report laborious to consider, notably because the survey timings lined the interval when the Covid-19 pandemic had closed church buildings.
“I have been writing about statistics on churchgoing for a decade and this was such an extraordinary outlier – it raised my suspicions immediately,” Wyatt, who writes The Critical Friend newsletter, instructed NCS.
Wyatt stated it was out of sync with different knowledge, together with the British Social Attitudes survey displaying a long-term development in churchgoing.
Some church leaders additionally warned that reviews of a revival risked getting used to advertise a type of Christian nationalism that was at odds with Christ’s message.
While the YouGov survey was flawed, some British churches are seeing curiosity improve.
Meanwhile, Catholic church buildings within the United States are seeing an increase in converts, in keeping with a New York Times report, and in France grownup baptisms have shot up.
Wyatt argues there may be “small, but measurable growth” in religiosity and attendance in Britain, however says the dialog about this matter had been “derailed” by the “rogue poll.”
YouGov stated its findings “contained a number of respondents who we can now identify as fraudulent,” including that concentrating on tougher to achieve teams together with ethnic minorities and younger individuals made the survey extra weak to fraudulent or problematic responses.
“YouGov takes full responsibility for the outputs of the original 2024 research, and we apologize for what has happened,” CEO Stephan Shakespeare stated. “We would like to stress that Bible Society have at all times accurately and responsibly reported the data we supplied to them.”
He stated they’d run the survey once more with the Bible Society to hunt extra “robust data.”
The Bible Society stated in an announcement it was “deeply disappointed” by what had occurred, however insisted the “wider picture” from different surveys pointed to “an increased engagement in faith among young adults compared to older generations.”