No miraculous rebirth of UK churchgoing, polling firm admits

By Christopher Lamb, CNN

(CNN) — A narrative that churchgoing in the UK had been undergoing a remarkable recovery, fueled by a growing sense of spirituality in the nation’s youth, turns out to have been based on a flawed premise.

A report that provided the basis for claims that a “quiet revival” was underway was withdrawn this week, after the polling organization YouGov admitted that its data contained potentially fraudulent responses.

YouGov apologized and took “full responsibility” for the errors while the Bible Society, which commissioned the findings, has pulled its original “Quiet Revival” report.

YouGov had based its findings on two polls conducted online, one in 2018 and another in 2024, surveying 19,101 and 13,146 adults respectively. Their report showed the proportion of people in England and Wales who said they attended church once a month or more had risen from 8 per cent before the pandemic to 12 per cent six years later. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, the polling showed attendance had increased fourfold, from 4 per cent to 16 per cent.

Data released by the Church of England since that polling came out in April 2025 shows that in fact, while attendance levels have been recovering, they remain below pre-pandemic levels.

The YouGov polling generated significant publicity and was cited as a core piece of evidence challenging the long-term trend away from churchgoing. Evangelical churches and commentators enthusiastically promoted the narrative.

But even at the time, some questioned the data. Tim Wyatt, a journalist who specializes in religious affairs, told CNN he found the report hard to believe, particularly as the survey timings covered the period when the Covid-19 pandemic had closed churches.

“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, told CNN.

Wyatt said it was out of sync with other data, including the British Social Attitudes survey showing a long-term trend in churchgoing.

Some church leaders also warned that reports of a revival risked being used to promote a form of Christian nationalism that was at odds with Christ’s message.

While the YouGov survey was flawed, some British churches are seeing interest increase.

Meanwhile, Catholic churches in the United States are seeing a rise in converts, according to a New York Times report, and in France adult baptisms have shot up.

Wyatt argues there is “small, but measurable growth” in religiosity and attendance in Britain, but says the conversation about this topic had been “derailed” by the “rogue poll.”

YouGov said its findings “contained a number of respondents who we can now identify as fraudulent,” adding that targeting harder to reach groups including ethnic minorities and young people made the survey more vulnerable 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 said. “We would like to stress that Bible Society have at all times accurately and responsibly reported the data we supplied to them.”

He said they would run the survey again with the Bible Society to seek more “robust data.”

The Bible Society said in a statement it was “deeply disappointed” by what had happened, but insisted the “wider picture” from other surveys pointed to “an increased engagement in faith among young adults compared to older generations.”

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