- Highest religious activity in America. Seventy-six percent of Latter-day Saint Millennials and Gen Z attend church at least monthly—more than any other major US religion. Eighty percent of Latter-day Saint parents pray and/or read scripture with their children, also the highest.

- Strong well-being, even among the youngest generation. Latter-day Saints rank among the very highest in feeling “deep spiritual peace” and being “very happy with life.”

- The highest active retention in the country. Forty-two percent of those raised Latter-day Saint still identify as such and attend monthly as adults—the highest active-retention rate of any religion. Among Millennial+ Christians, only Adventists retain active members at a higher rate.

- Some data suggest retention has declined, a trend similar to that seen in other religions. The current retention rate is ~50%, down from 82% in the 1980s. This is higher than other Christian denominations except Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

- Two factors stand out as the strongest predictors of leaving. Among Latter-day Saint youth, not feeling God’s presence in daily life and political ideology were the most significant predictors of deidentifying in their early 20s—a pattern seen across US religions today.

- Most who leave still value faith. Of those who deidentify, 54% still consider religion or spirituality important, and roughly 2 in 3 leave open the possibility of returning.

. . .

Religious Retention

Much has been written about the decrease in religious affiliation in the United States during the most recent decades.41 For example, the PRLS found that 78% of US adults identified as Christians in 2007, but that the number dropped to 71% by 2014 and then continued to drop, reaching 63% in 2024. Across the same period, those who identified as religiously unaffiliated rose from 16% in 2007 to 28% in 2024.42 Religious scholars have identified 1991 as the crucial turning point, marking the beginning of a substantial drop in religious commitment.43

Retention in 2024–2025 Across Generations

To estimate Latter-day Saint retention rates, we used the nationally representative PRLS and SSS data. We also explored retention of youth ages 12–18 using the longitudinal FFYD data. In table 3, we show retention rates in 2024 and 2025 from the PRLS, SSS, and FFYD. In the PRLS and SSS, approximately half of those who were raised Latter-day Saint continued to identify as Latter-day Saint as an adult. Looking specifically at youth in the FFYD, around three quarters of those who indicated they were a Latter-day Saint in 2016 (when they were 12–14 years old) also indicated they were a Latter-day Saint eight years later in 2024 (when they were 20–22 years old). It should be noted that retention is likely much lower in the PRLS and SSS than the FFYD because the PRLS and SSS contain those of all age groups and the FFYD contains only those in their late teens to early 20s. In other words, there was less time for religious change to occur for these younger Latter-day Saints.

Survey ... Retention Rate ... Sample Size

Pew Religious Landscape Study (2024)a ... 49.4% (45%–54%) ... 727

Spiritual Seismology Survey (2025)a ... 53.3% (51%–56%) ...1668

Family Foundations Youth Development (2016–2024)b ... 75.7% (71%–80%) ... 329

a Retention rate represents the percentage of those who indicated they were Latter-day Saint as a teen and still identify as Latter-day Saint when they took the survey (SSS or Pew) as an adult.

b Retention rate represents the percentage of youth who were Latter-day Saint in 2016 who continued to identify as Latter-day Saint in 2024.

. . .

In figure 16, we used the PRLS data and compared retention rates across religions in 2024. The highest retention rate is for Hindus and then Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Latter-day Saints, and Baptists. However, the Latter-day Saint rate is not significantly different from Catholics. Latter-day Saints have a higher retention rate than other Christian religions (except Orthodox Christian and Catholics) and Buddhists. However, with the confidence intervals, Latter-day Saints are statistically the same as Catholics and Baptists. Given that nonparticipation in an organization is conceptually and practically different from participating in an organization, we did not include those who identify as “unaffiliated” (meaning there is no religious organization to which they belong) in figure 16. However, we did examine the stability of such religious nonparticipation, finding that 74% of those raised nonreligious remain nonreligious as adults, comparable to the retention rate of Muslims, Hindus, and Catholics.

[Figure 16, see image]

Retention Across Time

We also explored how Latter-day Saint retention rates have changed over time. We did so using the GSS data. Although the GSS contains fewer Latter-day Saints than the other surveys, it is the only survey where retention can be estimated back to the 1980s. When estimating retention in the 2000s, the best data come from the PRLS and SSS data. However, one cannot use those data to examine changes in retention across several decades. As with the above, we define “retention” as someone saying they were a Latter-day Saint as a teen, and as an adult they continue identifying as a Latter-day Saint. Importantly, this is independent of how active they were as a Latter-day Saint during their teenage years.

As found in the GSS data, in the 1980s, we calculated Latter-day Saint retention at 82%. That is, 82% of those who were raised Latter-day Saint indicated that they still identified as Latter-day Saint as adults. This identification number dropped slightly to 76% by the 1990s and then more steeply to 58% by the 2000s. In line with religious identification trends broadly, by the 2010s and beyond, the retention rate was slightly less than half at 46%. The rate of 46% from the GSS is similar to what was reported above from the PRLS and SSS data, which put the retention rate at just over 50% in 2024 and 2025.

Using the GSS, we also explored how active participation has changed over time for those raised Latter-day Saint. In 1980, 65% of those raised Latter-day Saint attended religious services at least monthly, while 16% attended several times a year or less and 19% no longer identified as Latter-day Saint. Over the following decades, the percentage of those who attended a few times a year or less but continued to identify as Latter-day Saint decreased. From 2010 to 2024, only 7% of those raised Latter-day Saint continued to identify as Latter-day Saint when they attended church a few times a year or less. This suggests that today, Latter-day Saints who do not attend church are less likely to identify as Latter-day Saint than they were in the past. It may be that the increased negative perception of religion in general (or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular)44 makes it less desirable to identify as actively religious.45 In the past, people may have identified with a particular religion even though they were not attending church, whereas today, continuing to identify may come with an increase in perceived social costs.46

Retention for Younger Generations

Using the GSS, we also explored how Latter-day Saint Millennial+ retention rates compare to retention rates of previous generations. Retention rates across the generations decreased from the 1990s to the 2000s. Boomers retention held steady from the 2000s to the 2010s, while Millennial+ had the greatest drop in retention, from just over 60% in the 2000s to just above 40% in the 2010s. We should note that many Millennial+ were still young prior to the 2000s and therefore did not have as much time to leave their religion than those of other generations. These data also do not provide insights into individuals who may have returned to religious faith later in life.

Active Retention

We were not only interested in whether an adult continues to identify with their childhood religion but whether he or she is, to some extent, engaged in that religion as an adult.47 In figure 17, we broke down retention by frequency of religious service attendance. We divided PRLS respondents who were raised Latter-day Saint into three groups: (1) those who continue to identify as Latter-day Saint as adults and attend religious services at least monthly, (2) those who continue to identify as Latter-day Saint as adults but attend religious services only a few times a year or less, and (3) those who no longer identify as Latter-day Saint. We did the same for those raised in other religions, examining continued identification and religious service attendance together.

[Figure 17, see image]

At 42%, Latter-day Saints have the highest percentage of retention (i.e., continuing to identify as a Latter-day Saint as an adult) and monthly attendance of any religion. This is followed by Muslims at 38%, then Nondenominational at 28%. For Jews, who are the third highest in overall retention, only 18% of respondents are retained and attend monthly.

Essentially, it is a minority of Latter-day Saints who do not attend at least monthly and still identify as Latter-day Saint (12%). In contrast, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims all have substantial numbers (around half) of adherents who were raised in these religions and still identify as such but attend religious services a few times a year or never. For these religions, expectations for attending religious services may differ from Latter-day Saints, where frequent attendance is emphasized. These findings indicate the importance of attendance as a feature of identifying as Latter-day Saint.

We conducted the same analysis for Millennial+ (born in or after 1980) with similar trends observed. As indicated in figure 18, Latter-day Saint Millennial+ are statistically even with Muslims in the percentage retained who also attend services at least monthly (39%). The next closest is the Nondenominational family at 30%.