While faith traditions across the spectrum continue to shed adherents, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exhibit the highest religious activity in the nation, according to a new study out of Brigham Young University.

The report from BYU Studies, a publication of the church-owned school, highlights the recent trends of religious activity, retention and beliefs across generations amid major faith groups.

In the 54-page report, researchers compiled four large datasets and a BYU longitudinal adolescent study and found that 76% of millennial and Generation Z Latter-day Saints attend services at least monthly — more than any other major faith in the United States.

But the findings go even deeper and wider.

The survey defined retention as the percentage of those raised in a religion who continue to identify with the same faith in adulthood. The researchers discovered that Latter-day Saints from all age groups, at 42%, enjoyed the highest “active” retention — meaning those who still identify as members and go to church at least once a month. Another 12% who identify as members attend “a few times a year” or “never.”

Significantly, that number has plunged from 82% since the 1980s.

Justin Dyer, editor-in-chief of BYU Studies and one of the authors of the report, explained the data showed a bird’s-eye view of how the faith is doing as a whole.

“We’ve kind of always had this sense that Latter-day Saints are doing pretty well,” Dyer said. “This is descriptive. With a lot of the chatter going on with Latter-day Saints, it’s important to describe and clarify exactly what’s going on.”

This data, the BYU religion professor said, while showing what areas in which the U.S.-based faith is doing well, also revealed areas where the faith could improve. For starters, nearly half (46%) have stopped identifying with the faith entirely.

“For Latter-day Saints, if they aren’t going, they’re not going to identify,” Dyer said. “We’re very, very likely to go (to church), compared to every other religion. ... But we don’t keep, if you will, people who don’t attend regularly. They don’t tend to continue to identify.”

In the study, researchers also examined the frequency of various religious behaviors, activities and beliefs. Topics that were analyzed included prayer, reading scriptures and overall well-being.

In all, 80% of Latter-day Saint parents pray and/or read scripture with their children, also the highest among the faith traditions studied.

The report examined four national data sources — the 2024 Pew Religious Landscape Study, the 2025 Spiritual Seismology Survey, the 1997-2022 General Social Survey and the 2006-2024 Cooperative Election Study — along with data from the Family Foundations of Youth Development project, a long-term adolescent development study launched by BYU in 2016.

Two of the surveys — the Pew study and the seismology survey — were used to examine retention trends.

Generation gaps

Another finding suggests a growing gap among religious women of various age groups.

In comparing retention rates by age and gender, the study’s authors discovered that younger women are far less likely to be retained than older ones.

Although retention for Latter-day Saint women, ages 18 to 24, was about 40%, ranking among the highest compared to other faiths, it still fell behind the 55% found among female Latter-day Saints in their late 40s and further below the 70% or higher for those in their 70s.

(Male retention reflected a similar arc for Latter-day Saints, though the rates were higher for younger men (above 50%) than for women and lower for older men than their female counterparts.)

The data showed that nearly every other major religion in the U.S. had a generation gap.

Barbara Morgan Gardner, one of the authors and a prominent Latter-day Saint researcher, suggested that this phenomenon potentially speaks to a lack of interaction between generations.

“We need all women of every generation mingling, sharing and attending family reunions,” Gardner said. “We see a correlation between increased peace and happiness for women and positive intergenerational relationships and experiences. … So if we separate ourselves regularly based on age, rather than learning from and experiencing each other, we may be adding to the problem.”

The researchers discovered that not feeling God’s presence in daily life, political ideology and social issues factored as the most significant indicators of religious disaffiliation for those in their early 20s.

A range of social issues, including same-sex marriage and abortion, appears to be driving factors. The Utah-based church opposes same-sex marriage and permits abortions only in certain circumstances.

But many of these individuals remain open to the idea of faith.

Of those who no longer identify with the church, 54% still consider religion and faith important, the study showed, and roughly 2 in 3 leave open the possibility of returning to their former faith.

Gardner, who also serves as the chaplain-at-large in higher education for the church, noted that the data showed many areas in which members of various faiths — especially Gen Z individuals — may struggle and provided possible remedies.

“The research indicates that some of the struggle is likely due to political ideology or not feeling God’s presence in daily life. In order to help, we need to get to the root of the issue,” she said. “How helpful it would be if we listened carefully and thoughtfully to individual women rather than offering quick, sometimes overgeneralized solutions? Each individual millennial, each individual person, has a unique story and valid experiences. … Each ‘n’ in our research represents one individual person. That one ‘n,’ that one person, really, really matters.”