Young men are now more likely than young women in the US to say religion plays a major role in their lives, according to the newest findings from Gallup.
Data covering 2024-25 indicates that 42% of men aged 18 to 29 describe religion as very important to them, a significant rise from 28% in 2022-23. In comparison, young women’s responses have remained largely unchanged over the same period, holding at roughly 30%.
In earlier measurements, young men and women were essentially tied on this indicator of religiosity. That balance has now shifted, with young men pulling ahead by a statistically meaningful margin. This increase among younger men stands out, especially since older men and women have shown little movement since 2022-23.
With this recent jump, young men’s reported importance of religion has climbed back to levels not seen in about 25 years, nearly matching the 43% recorded in 2000-01. Women across all age brackets, along with older men, are at or close to their lowest levels on record.
Led there by the most transparently not-religious “religious” grifters too. Some young men kind of deserve their loneliness epidemic.
I’d be willing to wager many of them started going to church more regularly simply to find subservient women without putting in any effort. More power to them, but those are boring relationships.
I know one of the guys that this statistic is describing. He basically made no meaningful connections after college despite living in a few different big cities. He got into Jordan Peterson and “got more religious”. Weirdly, he actually isn’t interested in going to any churches. Anyways, he’s a full on fascist now and I cut off contact.
Not saying you don’t have a point. But a good church is actually a great 3rd place. When I was growing up most of my parents friends were from church. They hung out all the time outside of church. I remember going to watch parties for Star Trek DS9 and voyager with their church friends. Even all these years later they are still good friends with people they met there but that moved away.
I never believed in any of the religious part of it. I was a closet atheist from about 1st grade when I first heard the term. But I appreciated the social aspect of the (thankfully not fire and brimstone) church I grew up in. I went to church nearly every Sunday all the way through high school just to see my friends.
That social third place aspect is the only thing I miss as an atheist with few third places.
My parents were the Christmas and Easter sort, I think mostly to make me aware of then-predominant social situations. The church we went to was run by Franciscans, so … funny homilies, lots of live music. It was fun as a kid, but I never believed in what they were saying. But hey, being able to stay up for midnight Mass was pretty awesome as a preteen.
I’d be curious about how many of those “very religious” young men even attend church. Being told your hatred is righteous and part of an army trying to restore your rightful place at the top of society is a lot more fun than listening to some guy talk every Sunday or going out to volunteer at a soup kitchen.