Poll showing ‘significant rise’ in churchgoing pulled over bogus respondents

A survey showing a significant rise in church attendance in parts of the UK has been withdrawn after some respondents were found to be fraudulent.

The poll was central to a Quiet Revival report published by the Bible Society last year which prompted news stories about a supposed resurgence in Christianity, particularly among young people.

But YouGov, which carried out the research in 2024, said on Thursday that the data sample was flawed, with “a number of respondents who we can now identify as fraudulent”.

The pollster’s chief executive Stephan Shakespeare said: “YouGov takes full responsibility for the outputs of the original 2024 research, and we apologise for what has happened.

“We would like to stress that Bible Society have at all times accurately and responsibly reported the data we supplied to them. We are running the survey again with Bible Society to get robust data on this topic.”

The report had claimed 12% of adults in England and Wales were attending church once a month or more in 2024, which YouGov described as “a significant increase from 8% in a previous 2018 study”.

The data also claimed to show a rise in young people’s attendance, from 4% of 18 to 24-year-olds attending monthly in 2018 to 16% in 2024.

‘Sought assurances’

The Bible Society said it had “repeatedly sought and received assurances from YouGov, regarding both the robustness of the methodology and the reliability of the report’s conclusions” and was “deeply disappointed that YouGov not only made an error but also that it only discovered this so recently”.

The organisation said it was only at the beginning of this month that YouGov “confirmed that it failed to activate key quality control technologies that protect the sample from a wide range of errors and this undermines the reliability of the results”.

The Bible Society insisted there remains “a very positive story to tell”, saying that in the past year “we have seen an unprecedented public conversation about Christianity, with countless stories of a spiritual awakening among Gen Z”.

But Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson said the withdrawal of the data was “both validation and vindication”.

He added: “We need to be absolutely clear: there is no revival of Christianity in Britain.

“For almost a year, Humanists UK has taken a rational, evidence-based approach, repeatedly and rigorously explaining why the Bible Society’s claims do not stand up.”

David Voas, emeritus professor of social science at UCL (University College London), said experts had previously warned of probable flaws with the figures, citing “bogus respondents, repeat respondents, people overseas interested in the rewards, and other problems that infect opt-in online polls”.

The Bible Society report had referenced various denominations within Christianity, including Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Pentecostals.

‘Signs of hope’

Separately, Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally, in her first presidential address to the Church of England’s Synod – or parliament – last month, referred to “a visible sign of hope in the anecdotal and statistical evidence that, over the last four years, people have been returning to church” and “early indications of a rise in attendance and participation having continued over last year”.

A snapshot of the Church of England’s latest annual Statistics for Mission report, showing attendances for 2025, is due to be published in the coming weeks.

The most recent report, published last year, showed congregations had grown slightly in recent years, though numbers were still below pre-pandemic levels.

There were an estimated 1.02 million regular worshippers across the Church in 2024, up from 1.01 million in 2023.

The figure was 1.11 million in 2019 and 1.14 million in 2014.