Young men in the United States are more religious than young women for the first time in 25 years, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday.
The data show that 42 percent of men aged 18 to 29 say religion is “very important” in their lives. That figure stood at 28 percent just two years ago. Young women’s attachment to religion held steady at about 30 percent during the same period.
The 14-point jump among young men represents a sharp departure from typical demographic trends. It has caught the attention, tempered with caution, of researchers who study religion in America.
“The magnitude of the jump they’re talking about [is] humongous—religious importance is up from 28 percent to 42 percent in two years. That’s not how demographics typically work,” Ryan Burge, a political scientist and statistician who studies religious trends, told The Epoch Times. “You don’t see a metric rise by 50 percent in two years.”…