Some schools take a faith-based approach to education. NCLS Research offers the Student Spiritual Life Survey to help schools from a Christian tradition to understand the spiritual lives of their students.
An initial snapshot of results from the Student Spiritual Life Survey reveals that around half of students (52%) said that spirituality is important or very important in their lives.
Religious or spiritual identity
The Student Spiritual Life Survey (SSLS) explores 6 key themes, one of which is religious or spiritual identity.
Examples of a student's religious or spiritual identity include:
- Terms used to describe themselves,
- Importance of spirituality in their life, and
- Their religious affiliation.
Importance of spirituality in their life
In the SSLS, students were invited to say how important spirituality is in their life.
Around half (52%) of students affirmed the importance of spirituality. Some 21% said it is very important and 31% said it is important.
Some 32% said that spirituality is of little importance and 16% said that spirituality is not important at all.
Source: 2025 Snapshot of Student Spiritual Life Survey by NCLS Research (n = 14,461).
Who took part in the survey?
This initial snapshot was taken in late 2025 based on some 14,461 students in 28 Christian schools who had completed the Student Spiritual Life Survey. Some schools have used the SSLS more than once, but this article uses results only from their most recent survey wave i.e. each student was only counted once.
Students represented in these results are:
- More male than female (59% vs39%)
- Mostly born in Australia (88%)
- Mostly younger high school students (Years 7-10)
Spiritual profile of students
For more national findings on the spiritual profile of these participating students, read our article: More students describe themselves as Spiritual than Christian or Religious.
