More Gen Z men find meaning in Christianity

How do young Australian men and women approach religion? The long-term research evidence is that women tend to be more religious than men. So, when it was reported in September 2024 in the NY Times that “In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women” it was unexpected and intriguing.

Is this a trend evident in Australia?  NCLS researchers used data from our annual Australian Community Survey* to check out the religious and spiritual profile of Generation Z male and females. The results were first reported by ABC news in "Why more Australian Gen Z men are finding meaning in organised religion"  and on Triple J's Hack in December 2024 (see the third story).  

This article provides more detail on the Australian findings.

About the Study

About the Australian Community Survey (ACS).  The 2022 ACS, run by NCLS Research is an online survey of a representative sample of Australians (n = 3090).

Definition of Gen Z: Aged under 28 years in 2022

Young adults are currently part of what is referred to as ‘Generation Z’. For this study, Generation Z is defined as people aged from 18 to 27 years in 2022. 

Measuring religiousness or spirituality

Describing a person’s religiousness or spirituality is complex and has multiple dimensions. Some common measures include:

• Beliefs: Understanding what Australians believe on religious matters, like belief in God, provides a cognitive perspective.
• Experience: This can cover the breadth of their affective or emotional experiences, such as mystical or supernatural experiences.
• Private practice: e.g. prayer and meditation
• Public practice: e.g. church attendance
• E.g. affiliation with a particular religion, denomination or movement
• Knowledge: Religious knowledge may include familiarity with holy texts, key characters and so on.

The findings

Australian Gen Z females are spiritually open. Compared to Gen Z males, this study found Australian Gen Z females they are more likely to agree there is some spirit or life force and to have had a mystical or supernatural experience. This is similar to trends found in the US study of young adults. 

No gender difference in active religious practices: In the Gen Z cohort there is little or no gender difference  with regard to private religious practices, such as prayer or meditation, or public practise, such as frequent service attendance (at least monthly).   

Gen Z males more likely to adopt Christian identity: However, Gen Z males are more likely than females to have adopted a Christian identity. They are also more positive about the role of Christian religion in society.

This Australian study confirms that some Gen Z males are more religious than their female counterparts.  However, it appears that this is more about adopting a Christian identity, rather than actively engaging Christian practices.

Future research will explore how different the Gen Z cohort is to other older cohorts with regard to gender differences.

 

*About the Australian Community Survey (ACS).  This study used data collected in the 2022 Australian Community Survey, run by NCLS Research.  The aim of the ACS is to provide a picture of social attitudes, religion, spirituality, and wellbeing in Australian communities. The ACS has been run by NCLS Research on 10 occasions from 1998 to 2024.  It is a representative sample of adults on age, gender and location from a large online research panel of Australians managed by Online Research Unit (ORU).   The dataset is weighted to reflect the demographic profile of the Australian population aged 18+ on age, gender and education.

This analysis was conducted on the 2022 ACS because it had a sample size of 3090 respondents, which enabled a more detailed investigation of young adults. Results were retested on the 2024 ACS (collected in May) and the trends of the larger study were supported.

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Religious or Spiritual Beliefs

• Gen Z males are more likely than females to say “there is a personal God” (26% vs 18%) and “I don’t really know what to think” (30% vs 26%).
• Gen Z females are more likely to say “there is some sort of spirit or life force” (34% vs 26% for males).

Religious or Spiritual Experience

• The majority of Gen Z males and females have had a mystical or supernatural experience or believe it could happen.
• Gen Z females are more likely than males to say they have had a mystical or supernatural experience (30% vs 20% for males).
• Gen Z males are more likely than females to say they don’t think such experiences occur (27% vs 18%).

Private Practice: prayer and meditation

• Gender makes very little difference to Gen Z patterns of prayer and meditation.

Public Practice: religious service attendance

• Some 42% of Gen Z males and 56% of Gen Z females never attend religious worship services
• Gen Z males are more likely than females to attend infrequently (less than once more month)
• Similar proportions of Gen Z males (14%) and females (12%) are frequent attenders (at least monthly).

Religious Identity and Practice

• Gen Z males are more like than females to identify as Christian (39% vs 28%)
• If you combine identity and levels of practice:
  • Identify and active: Similar proportions of Gen Z males (11%) and females (9%) describe themselves both as Christian and frequently attend religious services (at least monthly).
  • This aligns with data from the National Church Life Survey, where Gen Z males are slightly less present in churches than females.
  • Identify but non-active: More Gen Z males than females identify as Christian, but do not actively practice faith through attending services (30% males vs 20% females).

Attitude to Christianity

• When asked if they agree that “The Christian religion is good for society” the majority of Gen Z Australians are neutral or unsure.
• Gen Z males are more likely than females to agree or strongly agree with the statement that “The Christian religion is good for society” (37% vs 17%).