Bible sales have doubled and the number of young Britons attending church services has quadrupled in six years, according to fresh data released Sunday.
The Sunday Express exclusively reports on the surge in Christian faithful among younger church members seeking stability and meaning in an increasingly fragile world, all driving a spiritual u-turn. It reports:
YouGov data and the Bible Society’s ‘Quiet Revival’ report reveal two million more attendees packed pews in 2024 than 2018 – with Gen Z’s aged 18-24 miraculously quadrupling from 4 to 16 per cent.
Even Bible sales in the UK have almost doubled in five years with 2019 sales totalling £2.69 million – but rocketing to £5.02 million in 2024, according to Nielsen BookScan figures.
According to the outlet, the “Good News” is no surprise to the UK’s Catholic leader Cardinal Vincent Nichols, 79, or Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, 66 – leading the Church of England after Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned last November.
Both agreed factors such as the Gaza and Ukraine crises, immigration, poverty and new assisted dying and abortion laws have contributed to the return to the Christian church by its younger members.
The release of the figures showing a UK Christian spiritual uplift comes just days after Christian/gospel music was reported to be surging across the U.S. alongside “recession pop” according to Luminate’s 2025 Midyear Report.
In its midyear survey, AP reports Luminate, an industry data and analytics company, provides insight into changing behaviors across music listenership on the other side of the Atlantic.
The AP reports set out the numbers:
Music streams continued to grow globally and stateside in the first half of 2025. Global on-demand audio streams reached 2.5 trillion in the first half of 2025 — up from 2.29 trillion in the same period last year.
And in the U.S., on-demand audio streams grew to 696.6 billion in 2025, compared to 665.8 billion in 2024.
But even though more music is being streamed than ever before, compared to past years, the rate of growth is slowing down. In 2024, U.S. and global on-demand audio streams grew 8% and 15.1%, respectively. In 2025, those numbers have dropped to 4.6% and 10.3%.
Though streams of new music — music released in the last 18 months — are slightly down from the same time last year, one genre is defying trends as rock leads stateside, followed by Latin, country, and then comes surging Christian/gospel music.
The latter is winning over audiences, said Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations, as people seek to reconnect with the Christian faith.
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