Turns out the oldest book in the room still knows how to get people’s attention.
Bible sales in the U.S. hit a 21-year high in 2025, with 19 million units sold, up 12% from 2024 and double the number sold in 2019. In the U.K., publishers reported Bible sales were 134% higher than in 2008, when those figures were first tracked.
“The greater interest in religious content in the U.S. reflects a bigger search for hope and community, and suggests that consumers are increasingly turning to faith-based resources as anchors of stability and sources of comfort during uncertain times,” said Brenna Connor, Circana’s director and industry analyst for the U.S.
Part of that interest appears to be coming from younger adults. According to the American Bible Society’s State of the Bible report, 21% of Gen Z adults said they read the Bible more in 2024 than they did the year before, while 9% said they were reading it less. The same reporting described Gen Z as a major driver of the current resurgence, even as the generation remains wary of institutions and traditional religious packaging.
Other publishing leaders are seeing the same pattern. Sam Richardson, CEO of SPCK, pointed to political and social upheaval, the aftereffects of the pandemic, global wars, the rise of AI and the mental health crisis as reasons more people are revisiting questions of meaning and spirituality. Richardson said the sustained increase in Bible sales suggests more people are investigating Christianity for themselves and drawing their own conclusions about its truth.
Mark Schoenwald, CEO of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, said his company was on pace for a third straight year of double-digit growth across Bible formats. He said the trend suggests people are not only buying Bibles but trying to read them, understand them and apply them to their lives.
The current information climate appears to be part of the story, too. Bobby Gruenewald, founder of YouVersion — which passed 1 billion downloads in 2025 —, said people are living in a media environment where truth often feels harder to pin down.
“We’re inundated with content that we don’t know is real,” Gruenewald said. “One of the consequences — a good consequence — is that people are searching for what is true.”
The sales data does not answer every question, but researchers say it points to a real increase in spiritual curiosity — especially among younger adults.
Ashley LaLonde, a research fellow at Barna, said the pattern fits a larger shift the group has been tracking.
“On the whole, we are seeing signs of spiritual renewal,” LaLonde said.
LaLonde said Gen Z is showing increasing spiritual openness, including openness to Christianity, along with growing interest in Jesus. Barna is not calling the moment a revival, she said, but the organization is seeing clear movement.
“There’s absolutely movement and a sort of like churning happening in the American church,” she said.
LaLonde said the shift is likely being shaped by several pressures hitting younger generations at once, including anxiety, depression, political exhaustion and economic instability. Those conditions, she said, often push people toward deeper questions about meaning, purpose and what remains when familiar systems stop feeling dependable.
“When the world fails you, where else do you turn?” LaLonde said. “And for many, at the other end of that question is God.”
A rise in Bible sales, though, does not automatically mean a broad return to practicing Christianity. LaLonde said Barna defines practicing Christians as people who identify as Christian, have attended a worship service in the last month and say their faith is very important in their lives. By that measure, growing Bible interest may reflect a search for answers before it reflects church involvement or long-term discipleship.
LaLonde said the distinction matters because spiritual openness and Christian practice do not always move together, especially now. Some younger adults are exploring Jesus while remaining skeptical of institutions. Some are reading Scripture outside traditional church settings. Some are asking serious questions without yet attaching themselves to a congregation.
“There are spiritually open Christians and spiritually closed Christians,” LaLonde said. “Likewise, there are spiritually open non-Christians and spiritually closed non-Christians.”
That tension is what makes the current Bible boom worth paying attention to. The numbers do not prove a sweeping return to church, and they do not automatically signal deep discipleship. What they do show is that in a culture flooded with spin, half-truths and constant uncertainty, more people — especially young adults — are still willing to open Scripture and ask whether it offers something sturdier than everything else competing for their attention.
