Does religion play a role in young people’s political views and civic behaviors?
More than half of young people report that religious beliefs at least slightly inform their political views.
Most young people say that their religion¹ shapes their politics at least slightly (57%). Many others, including those who claim no religion or spirituality, say that their religion does not shape their politics (43%). These two groups of young people—“religiously influenced” and “religiously uninfluenced”—differ in their civic engagement and the extent to which they view politics as an important part of their lives.
Religiously influenced young people are more civically engaged than religiously uninfluenced young people.
Young people who say that their religion shapes their politics are more likely to have engaged civically (through voting, volunteering, or otherwise) in the past 12 months than those who say that their religion does not shape their politics. Eighty percent of religiously influenced young people have participated in at least one civic engagement activity in the past year, compared to 60% of religiously uninfluenced young people.
This difference emerges for all 17 civic engagement activities included in our survey. The largest differences between the religiously influenced and the religiously uninfluenced surfaced for attendance at a prayer vigil for a social/political cause and engagement in community service or volunteer work.
Religiously influenced young people are more likely than religiously uninfluenced young people to say that politics is important in their lives.
Fifty-five percent of religiously uninfluenced young people say that politics is unimportant in their lives, as compared to 39% of religiously influenced young people. Meanwhile, 22% of religiously influenced young people say that politics is important, as compared to 14% of religiously uninfluenced young people.
¹Although our survey question asked young people how much their religion or spirituality shapes their politics, we say religion throughout this Data Drop for brevity and clarity.
