More and more young people are embarking on spiritual journeys. While back in 2019, just 22 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK said they believed in God, by early 2025 that number had more than doubled to 45 per cent. More young adults are attending church, curious about what Christianity might have to offer them, with new research commissioned by the Bible Society revealing that since 2018 the number of young men attending church has increased from 4 per cent to 21 per cent, while young women’s attendance has risen from 3 per cent to 12 per cent. Dr Rob Barward-Symmons, co-author of the report, believes that “with much of the population struggling with mental health, loneliness and a loss of meaning in life, church appears to be offering an answer.”

That was certainly my story when I decided to become a Christian at 13. Now I’m 29, I can see looking back that I was often sad and lonely as a child. I didn’t have many genuine friends, and since our family moved from Ghana to (a very white) Brighton when I was nine, I struggled to fit in. While that sense of loneliness didn’t magically disappear when I became a Christian, I realised that everything I heard at youth group about Jesus’ love rang true, and I can confidently say I know he will always be with me. It’s this relationship with him that has changed me, my sense of self and the outlook in which I see my life. 

I’m not alone in discovering the power of faith. Delphine, a writer and speaker, started regularly attending church a few years ago. Her faith journey was initially quite solitary, involving lots of reading, podcasts, and personal reflection. But when she found a local church, everything changed. “I met all kinds of people, some with similar experiences to me and some wildly different from anyone I’d ever known,” she says. “But it made me realise how universal the church is and how God’s call is genuinely for everyone." For Delphine and many like her, the sense of community at church has been a really important factor in growing her faith.

Eloise, a therapist, first came across Christianity at university. “I joined a Christian group, partly out of curiosity,” she recalls. “I was wrestling with big questions in my early 20s, like: ‘what’s the purpose of my work? What should I be aiming for in life?’” For her, Jesus offered a space to think about identity and purpose beyond striving for career and success. Your twenties, Eloise suggests, are a definitive decade where you try “to figure out who you are, what you believe, and where you’re going in life”. It’s no surprise, then, that many find themselves on a quest for answers during their formative years.

This chimes with Delphine. While at university, she hit a wall: burnout, grief, and a sense of emptiness that she started searching again. “Nothing I tried was filling that void, not relationships, not life milestones, nor career achievements.” And so she turned to the Bible, describing her reading as a “self-help binge”. For her, the text held the answers she had been looking for. The pandemic gave her time to reflect and read further. “I became the stereotype – I got a dog and found faith.” Delphine eventually returned to her Catholic roots, finding a sense of truth, community, and belonging.

It’s worth acknowledging that for some, the appeal of Christianity lies in its moral framework, which chimes with their existing right-leaning politics. Being pro-life, opposing same-sex marriage, and supporting traditional gender roles are all beliefs that resonate with many Christians. Relatedly, some have connected the rising numbers of young men attending church in the US to the continuing spread of conservative values among this demographic. While we don’t have the same long-standing ties between church and any one political party in the UK, similar conversations are now happening. Ahead of the last general election, a guide created by the Christian organisation CARE encouraged Christians to vote in a way that reflects their faith. The guide deemed Nigel Farage’s Reform Party to have the most Christian policies – a deeply ironic conclusion, given the party’s history of racist rhetoric, hostile immigration views, and candidates who’ve made offensive remarks about women.

I was wrestling with big questions in my early 20s, like: ‘what’s the purpose of my work? What should I be aiming for in life?’

But the Christian faith doesn’t only steer people towards the right. For others, it fuels a strong sense of progressive activism rooted in compassion, justice and solidarity. Ashley, a 20-year-old student, says her faith influences the way she engages with the world. “My faith in Jesus deeply influences and shapes how I see justice and respond to the suffering happening today,” she says. “In Mark 12:31, Jesus speaks on how we should love our neighbours as ourselves, not just the ones who are close, comfortable or easy to love.”

“It’s important to take the time to educate ourselves about the ongoing genocides and humanitarian crises in places like Palestine, Congo and Sudan – these are just a few of many,” she continues. “In a time where information is literally at our fingertips through social media or even a simple Google search, silence is a choice. To follow Jesus is to stand with the oppressed, to speak truth in love, and to embody compassion even when it might lead to uncomfortable conversations.”

Ashley’s perspective is one of many that shows a side of Christian political engagement often overlooked in public conversations, one that pushes back against the idea that Christianity naturally aligns with conservatism. For many young people, religion is not a reason to resist progressive change, but the very motivation to seek it. Even within global religious leadership, there are signs of a broader, more compassionate political vision. The late Pope Francis, for example, consistently took progressive stances; speaking out in support of Gaza, urging the world not to ignore Palestinian suffering, and most recently challenging the US Vice President JD Vance over his stance on immigration and the treatment of refugees (even if he wasn’t as progressive on issues such as LGBTQ+ rights). Similarly, movements like the Catholic Worker Movement and branches of the Episcopal Church have long embodied a more left-leaning expression of Christianity.

Jesus’s message is one of radical social justice: he promotes humility, caring for the poor, practising forgiveness, and loving your community – arguably these are values that should cut across all party lines. Maybe that’s the real appeal of religion for young people: a deep sense of purpose and compassion in a world that often feels fractured.