Why does this project exist?
The question behind our project
For decades, the dominant narrative about young people and religion was one of steady, inevitable decline. Secularisation theory predicted that modernisation would progressively erode religious belief and practice, especially among the younger generations. That story seemed to be confirmed by falling church attendance, declining religious affiliation, and a growing number of young people identifying as "nones."
Beyond Decline: A Global Revival of Faith and Meaning Defies Simple Labels
But something more complex is happening. Recent data — including our own — suggest that the picture is far more nuanced: a persistent and sometimes intense religiosity in the Global South; a visible minority of deeply committed young believers even in secularised Europe; and a widespread, if often unstructured, search for transcendence and meaning that defies simple categorisation.
Understanding Young People Beyond the Numbers
Understanding Young People Beyond the Numbers
At the same time, young people are navigating a world of rapid and simultaneous change: the transformation of work, the fragility of relationships, the crisis of institutions, and the challenge of forging identity in a culture of noise and distraction.
Footprints exists because young people deserve to be listened to carefully, not just measured. Understanding who they really are — not who we imagine or fear they might be — is a precondition for accompanying them well: as educators, as Church communities, as policymakers, and as fellow human beings.
The increasing process of secularisation, well documented in previous studies, runs parallel to a minor but significant opposite trend: an increase in faith lived out of conviction, replacing a kind of 'socio-cultural' religion lived out of mere tradition.