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Gen Z is not supposed to be the religious generation. Pollsters have spent two decades describing this cohort as the most secular in American history, the one that would finally break the chain of belief passed down from their grandparents. New Harris Poll data shared with this publication suggests otherwise: 33% of Gen Z identifies as religious, compared with 18% of Boomers, 22% of Gen X and 19% of Millennials\u2014making Gen Z the most religious-identifying generation in the survey. Their \u201cneither religious nor spiritual\u201d rate, 19%, is the lowest of any generation measured, lower than Boomers at 23%.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Gen Z has become the organizing force behind a nationwide revolt against AI data centers, a movement that has blocked or delayed more than $228 billion in projects since the start of 2025, according to research group Data Center Watch. More than 500 localities across 39 states have now passed bans, moratoriums or other restrictions on data center construction, and 843 opposition groups are active in 49 states.<\/p>\n
Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at The Harris Poll, wasn\u2019t sure at first when Fortune asked if these were flipsides of the same story, but when put in context with the craze for \u201canalog\u201d trends in the developing AI economy, she responded, \u201cI think you\u2019re onto something\u201d and explained there\u2019s a \u201ccontrol element\u201d underlying a lot of these responses.<\/p>\n
Rodney\u2019s polling suggests the data center fight and the religious turn are not parallel trends but expressions of similar underlying needs. \u201cThere\u2019s a control element,\u201d she said of the religious data. \u201cThat\u2019s the reason that they are spiritual\u2014they\u2019re looking for some sense of agency and control.\u201d Her research found 57% of Gen Z say they turned to spirituality or manifestation practice specifically to feel greater control over their future, while 60% say they belong to more real world and in-person communities than they used to, and 70% say they want to belong to even more of them in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real thing that you can see is there\u2019s just no consent,\u201d Rodney said in an interview. \u201cThis idea that the world\u2014the narrative that\u2019s out there from tech companies\u2014is like this AI world is happening whether you like it or not. And so there\u2019s this lack of consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Movement With Numbers Behind It<\/p>\n
The scale of the data center backlash is a constant on the eve of America\u2019s midterm elections. Local pushback blocked or delayed 45 projects worth $68 billion between April and June of this year alone, according to Data Center Watch, following an even larger $130 billion disruption in the first quarter \u2014 the largest single-quarter total on record. Gallup polling from March found seven in 10 Americans oppose data center construction near where they live and New York became the first state to impose a moratorium by executive order in July, pausing environmental permits for large facilities, with Pennsylvania and Texas following with their own restrictions. In California, officials in 15 cities and counties proposed or adopted moratoriums in a single month this fall.<\/p>\n
Rodney pointed out that this is tangible, physical infrastructure, rather than technology in the abstract. \u201cAll the other AI things are happening in the private sector or the national government,\u201d she said. \u201cBut this is something that happens at a local jurisdiction point of view. So the locality of it is huge. That is what makes people feel like they can have a difference.\u201d Her research found 73% of Americans don\u2019t want AI imposed on their community, and 68% say AI can be useful but \u201cfeels forced.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of this is happening in a vacuum of economic confidence. The same Harris Poll research finds 70% of Gen Z say the future they were promised hasn\u2019t materialized, and 61% have skipped medical care because of cost. A companion finding from Harris Poll\u2019s Milken Institute research this spring showed a 41-point gap between how business leaders and workers see AI\u2019s financial upside: 68% of leaders expect to be better off in five years because of the technology, versus just 27% of workers. \u201cThey\u2019re on two completely different journeys,\u201d Rodney said, \u201cand really no one\u2019s been talking to the American worker.\u201d<\/p>\n
That gap, she argued, is what fills the space with fear rather than persuasion. \u201cIn this messaging void, the only things that they\u2019re hearing are\u2026 you might lose your job. Humanity might die,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very logical and rational to not be down with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A generation learns to bowl together<\/p>\n
Rodney agreed that Gen Z is acting out against the warnings of Robert Putnam\u2019s sociological classic Bowling Alone, the seminal study of the collapse of American civic and associational life. When the Harris Poll works with universities, she said, alumni gatherings aren\u2019t \u201cfancy drinks and cocktails and nice dinners\u201d anymore, but instead \u201cthey\u2019re like, \u2018It\u2019s better to just put out chess boards and board games and cheap beer.’\u201d It\u2019s like they\u2019re trying to bowl together after the long decline that Putnam charted in his book.<\/p>\n
Seven in 10 Gen Zers in the survey said they\u2019ve reached out for help or leaned on others in the past year \u2014 more than any other generation. \u201cReligion is coming back because it\u2019s a couple of things,\u201d Rodney said, arguing that it\u2019s perhaps the ultimate example of a Putnam-ian phenomenon. \u201cIt\u2019s physical spaces, but it\u2019s people who help and it\u2019s community that comes together.\u201d<\/p>\n
That community-seeking impulse, she said, is the same one driving the infrastructure fights: \u201cIn this time of change, it\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, how can I reach for control?’\u201d One answer, for many, is to protest data centers. \u201cAnd then I\u2019m going to go into spirituality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrast with millennials is stark, as the Patriot Act passed in 2001 amid many warnings\u2014but little action\u2014over loss of privacy, and while the Iraq War was much protested but ultimately ground on for years. Gen Z is finding a way to affect the conversation in a way that millennials did not, Rodney said.<\/p>\n
Whether the data center fight becomes a durable political realignment or a moment-specific backlash is still unsettled\u2014moratoriums can be reversed, and developers have already begun suing local jurisdictions over bans. But the polling, at least, tells a consistent story: the generation raised to be the most secular, atomized and politically disengaged in American history is instead the one showing up to church more than the Boomers who raised them, and organizing against a trillion-dollar buildout with more discipline than the generation before it ever managed.<\/p>\n
For this story,\u00a0Fortune\u00a0journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.<\/p>\n
#Gen #religiosity #data #center #backlash #lack #consent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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