Although younger generations are attending church less frequently, they are increasingly turning to the Bible, according to a new study. Millennials, long seen as disengaged from religious practice, have shown a rise in Bible reading over the past year.
New data from the annual State of the Bible survey, conducted by the American Bible Society, shows that Bible use among millennials (now ages 29 to 44) has jumped nearly 30% since last year. The study defines a “Bible user” as someone who engages with scripture on their own, outside of a church service, at least three to four times per year. By that measure, 41% of U.S. adults now qualify as Bible users — the highest share since 2021.
The change is also largely driven by men. Men across all ages have shown strong increases in Bible engagement, while rates among women have largely held steady or declined. Experts say the renewed interest reflects a broader shift in the spiritual landscape, as more people — especially younger adults — seek meaning during times of uncertainty.
“Any time that we’re going through a season where there are a lot of questions about people’s futures, where they’re processing major change in their life … in those moments of transition, there is openness to trying to understand beyond what people have from within themselves,” explained Jennifer Holloran, president and CEO of the American Bible Society. “I think we’re seeing a lot of that.”
Renewed interest in the Bible, as well as religious symbols, has been steadily growing for some time. In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported a 22% surge in Bible sales over the previous year, underscoring the growing demand. Meanwhile, the cross has reemerged as a fashion statement, worn by public figures like White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Veils have also become more frequently spotted in Catholic churches across the country.
Engaging with religious content through new technology has also been gaining traction. Since 2018 Hallow, a Christian prayer app, has been downloaded 23 million times. Creators have turned to AI to reimagine Bible stories in a YouTube account called "The AI Bible."
This ongoing cultural shift coincides with data from Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, which shows that the growth of the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones,” has plateaued. Meanwhile, the decline in Christian affiliation appears to have stabilized at 62%. While it’s too early to declare a religious revival, the growing engagement with scripture among young people suggests a renewed hunger for wisdom, meaning and spiritual grounding, analysts say.
Millennials, men and the Bible
Millennials have often been labeled the least engaged generation, especially when it comes to traditional institutions, including religion. But perhaps their form of engagement simply looks different from that of previous generations. This cohort has historically shown lower rates of voting and political participation and skepticism toward government, media and organized religion. Millennials have also moved away from conventional family structures by marrying later and having fewer children.
Yet when it comes to the Bible, the trend may be shifting. In the 2024 State of the Bible report, just 30% of millennials qualified as Bible users, placing them behind every other generation. But in the most recent survey, that number jumped to 39%, a significant year-over-year increase. Millennials have now surpassed Gen Z in Bible engagement, with both millennial men and women contributing to the rise.
Overall, compared to last year, 10 million more American adults were reading the Bible outside of church a minimum of three times a year, the study said.
Holloran attributes this shift to life stage transitions. As millennials become parents, they’re increasingly reflecting on purpose and values and how to guide their children through life’s big questions.
“Millennials are coming to the end of the education that they’ve had and they’re saying, ‘where else can I go to find some of these answers?’” Holloran said. For many, that search is leading them back to scripture and into faith communities.
The uptick among men is especially notable, aligning with other research that suggests the historical gender gap in religiosity is narrowing.
Today, two-thirds of Bible users, especially Gen Z, report reading the Bible digitally at least some of the time. Video has become a particularly popular format for engagement.
Since last year, Bible use among men rose from 34% to 41%. Generation X men showed the largest increase — 29% — followed by millennial men at 25%. Beyond casual use, deeper and more consistent engagement is also on the rise. In 2025, one in five Americans are considered “Bible engaged,” up from 18% the previous year. Among Gen Z and millennials, active scripture engagement rose from 11% to 15% and 12% to 17%, respectively.
The study also identified a growing “movable middle”— people who are curious and are gradually deepening their relationship with the Bible. That group expanded from 65 million to more than 70 million adults this year. Meanwhile, the share of Americans considered “Bible-disengaged,” those who rarely or never interact with scripture, declined by three percentage points. Together, these shifts suggest a quiet but meaningful return to faith among a generation long assumed to be spiritually checked out.
Some of this reversal is explained by growing cultural and ideological divides, information overload and spiritual disconnection, according to Raymond Chang, executive director of the TENx10 Collaboration, an initiative that aims to bring young people to faith and is part of Fuller Seminary in California.
“People are looking for more certainty and clarity in a confusing and complex world,” Chang said. “They’re inundated with messaging and opinions from every angle, especially on social media. They don’t know what’s true and not true.”
Against that backdrop, the Bible may offer clarity and serve as a source of time-tested authority that transcends the current moment.
“There is a timelessness and a timeliness to the themes in the Bible that resonate with people,” Chang said. “It offers a different grand narrative that is, at the very least, intriguing — and, when you really dive in, very compelling.”
How Bible use is changing
The way young people interact with scripture is evolving, too. Today, two-thirds of Bible users, especially Gen Z, report reading the Bible digitally at least some of the time. Video has become a particularly popular format for engagement. Gen Z, the youngest adult cohort, leads the way in consuming Bible content through video platforms, reflecting a broader cultural shift toward visual storytelling and on-demand media.
Efforts to make the Bible more accessible and culturally resonant for young people have taken many creative forms. On TikTok, content creators retell Bible stories using Gen Z vernacular — combining humor, slang and even ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) to capture attention. In one video, for example, a TikToker narrates the story of Noah’s ark as a “Bible Story in Gen Z girl language,” while one pastor shared the angel Gabriel’s visitation to Mary in a viral “Gen Z translation.”
These reinterpretations aim to bridge generational gaps in communication, but they’re not without controversy. Critics argue that such adaptations risk trivializing sacred texts. “I think it’s very disrespectful,” said Christian TikToker Jae Fresco. “It’s a lack of humility and a lack of the fear of God that the true Bible imparts into someone who’s chasing a relationship with Christ.”
Another social media trend is reimagining Bible stories using AI-generated videos that depict biblical characters acting as influencers. Characters like David and Samson give dispatches in Gen Z slang as their stories are unfolding on AI-generated video.
Beyond social media, other projects have sought to repackage scripture for a digital-native audience. A company called Alabaster, founded by two millennials in Los Angeles, has reimagined the Bible for the Instagram era by pairing Scripture with minimalist design and artful photography. Their aesthetically curated editions are marketed to millennials and Gen Z as visually striking, meditative objects — designed to make Bible reading more approachable in a culture dominated by imagery and social feeds.
The company’s founders say the goal is to inspire deeper spiritual reflection through beauty and design. “We’re really interested in seeing how imagery changes the way you interact with the text,” co-founder Bryan Ye-Chung told the Deseret News. “If you look at millennials and Gen Zers, we’re very visually based people ... We wanted to bring that to a faith-based context.”
But the project also reveals a broader tension in contemporary religious life: the tension between meaningful engagement and the commodification of belief. For Chang, it’s all about the motivation behind the Bible-themed content creation. “If the Jesus of the Bible is being preached, I’m OK with that,” he said.
These efforts can also help introduce the Bible to young people for the first time, Chang said. Unlike previous generations, where church attendance or Bible study were more common, today’s disaffiliation from organized religion means that many young people have little to no familiarity with scripture.
" I think that there are a lot of people that have never interacted with the Bible or have opened the Bible or even know what the Bible is, apart from some vague reference," Chang said.
There’s a widespread assumption, he said, that people know more about the Bible than they actually do.
‘Let the text speak for itself’
Bible engagement correlates with higher levels of human flourishing, the study found through research with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. Close to 60% of the “scripture engaged” participants said they’re experiencing satisfaction, or “flourishing,” in more aspects of their lives, whereas among those who don’t interact with the scripture, just 27% say they are flourishing.
Whether seen as divine scripture or simply as an inspiring or historical text, the Bible has endured the test of time as one of the world’s most influential texts, Chang said.
To those just starting to explore the Bible, he recommends: “Don’t be afraid to let the text speak for itself.”