Rob Barward-Symmons

Shot, chaser

Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

We've got some really exciting projects lined up that this person would be able to get stuck into, so do apply if you're interested - or share it with someone who would be. But be quick, applications close next week!

YouTube video by The News Agents What's going on with young people and God?

"No one knows why."

A recent YouGov poll says the number of young people who actively have faith has doubled in the last six years... it's called the “Quiet Revival“.

What’s going on with young people and God?
@maitlis.bsky.social investigates.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=izH1...

Apologies for not tagging you there @alexandria-ah.bsky.social but to be fair yesterday you did proudly tell me you didn't have any social media so...

Just saw this thread while searching the hashtag and I had the same feeling this year of not feeling the desire (or need?) to do the live updates. May be because I no longer have a role, but also just feels like evidence that the relationship to social media has transformed over the past year

I should say a massive well done to everyone involved in the conference, particularly @jen-studies-death.bsky.social and Alex who put so much into making it happen. SocRel really is an annual highlight and it just doesn't happen without folk like them working thanklessly throughout the year

A faceless baby in a pram holding an events badge with the label "Baby Quiet Revival"

After another brilliant @bsasocrel.bsky.social conference #SocRel25 and a manic few months I'm today on my first day of three months of shared parental leave. Can't wait. Should hopefully spend less time on social media...

This is outstanding news (though as some know I would advocate for younger). Now schools have the real opportunity to guide young people in how to positively contribute towards democratic society

Dr Jennie Riley’s presentation on public engagement

Dr Renasha Khan’s presentation on reframing research and accessibility

Dr Rob Barward Symmons presentation on engaging with media

Fantastic PGR/ECR workshop this morning exploring public engagement, framing research and accessibility, and engaging with media by the excellent @jen-studies-death.bsky.social @renasha.bsky.social @robb-s.bsky.social

Lots of fantastic tips and insight which I look forward to putting into practice.

Ultimately from a data/sampling/methodological perspective it's their reputation at stake, and they were happy for it to go to print as written.

Worth adding, however, that we wouldn't be allowed to publish inaccurate analysis of the data - YouGov have reviewed everything in the report and have signed it off from a data accuracy perspective. If we bastardised the data they would publish a retraction and distance themselves

As is standard, the methodology and data tables on published data are available on request from YouGov (I don't have the direct link to hand atm), and we are exploring making more available in the future. All the relevant questions and sample sizes/info are also included in the report.

Sorry have to jump but as I say, a fuller FAQ coming soon.

Ultimately we have to acknowledge that, short of a full census (which does not ask about religious practice but that's a longer story) all surveys are going to have their limitations. Even British Social Attitudes! YouGov are, however, *incredibly* good at this form of polling.

[..] Denominational counts are measured VERY differently to a YouGov survey, and depend ultimately on a wide range of volunteers. I should say the data - and not just because of the findings - has been warmly received by senior figures within denoms because it gives deeper insights

- Having said that, the trend differences between ours and the denom counts are both curious and fascinating (though in some cases not as far out as would appear once margin of error is taken into account). The methodological differences between the approaches though are not insignificant [...]

- I would caution heavily against extrapolating specific numbers from percentages, particularly from smaller sample sizes, partly due to the larger margin of error at this scale. We avoid giving denominational, age etc *figures* for this reason

- A social desirability/"Shy Tory" dismissal needs to address convincingly firstly why it wasn't in effect in 2018 and secondly why these respondents look, across the whole breadth of the survey, like committed churchgoers. It's a coherent data story

Appreciate the blog, a Bsky thread probably not the best place to respond in full but we will have an FAQ piece coming out very soon addressing a lot of your queries. A couple of quick bullets though:

The BES data is available for download - www.britishelectionstudy.com/data/ - but all requires additional analysis, so this graph is based on The Economist's analysis of the data.

Fascinating article about the shift towards Christianity across the West, particularly among young adults. And exciting to see the Quiet Revival trends replicated in the British Election Study! Something is shifting, and we - including scholars - need to be paying attention

I’m delighted to see gen Z men in the UK flocking back to church – I just hope it’s for the right reasons | Jessica White Community, self-worth, activism: these things have boosted attendances. But so has online radicalisation – and we can’t ignore that, says writer Jessica White

Then today in the Guardian, looking for further research into what is drawing young men into the church - but looking with a sense of optimism www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Our multifaith society can revive the church Rather than threatening British Christianity, the rise of Islam may be helping it by defending religious practice

This column in The Times arguing that the vibrancy of all faiths also benefiting Christianity - including among young adults - "Faith seems to be a bigger, prouder part of their lives." www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Make Christianity cool again: Why Gen Z is flocking to church As a new report suggests that the number of young churchgoers has quadrupled, Helen Coffey investigates this potential UK spiritual revival – and asks why the next generation is more likely to be keep...

Some great pieces reflecting on the findings from The Quiet Revival over the last few days - just a few highlights here. Firstly, this from The Independent exploring the rise of Christianity among young adults in Britain www.independent.co.uk/life-style/c...

But part of the reason behind the 'quiet' label is that I think it can be happening even in people's own churches without them realising. People picture once empty churches now heaving, but it can be that the 1 young couple in a church in 2018 has become 4 in 2024 - and that's our 4x growth.

It's interesting asking around as some people have confidently seen it where they are, others have said 'Now you mention it there have been a few young adults join in the last few years', and others feeling as you are that they haven't felt it (yet!). As ever with national data, it's never uniform.

In terms of the denominational data, obviously they're very different methodologies but with the Anglicans especially we're not too different from their estimates, particularly if 2024 SfM continues to show a gradual post-pandemic return.

We're not releasing the full data set just yet, but will be looking to explore more areas (including regional, class, urban/rural etc) in the coming months - probably through blogs but we'll also aim for some journal articles. So you'll have to wait a bit, but definitely interesting stuff in there!

Really strong evidence of a religious resurgence in England and Wales from new data from the Bible Society.

Among 18-24 year olds, share attending monthly:
2018: 4%
2024: 16%

Among 25-34 year olds:
2018: 4%
2024: 13%

Overall, attendance went from 8% to 12%.

Gen Z leads rise in church attendance Gen Z leads an exciting turnaround in church attendance, as the decades-long decline in churchgoing in England and Wales is over.

This is a genuinely astounding data set, drawn from the most robust of polling methods from @yougov.co.uk and over 13,000 respondents. You can read the report for yourself through the link below, we'd love to hear your thoughts! #QuietRevival www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/qui...