Navigating Faith and Doubt: Why Many Are Leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Understanding the Complex Exodus:
A 2026 Analysis of Generational Shifts in Mormon Retention

Introduction

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faces an unprecedented challenge in 2026: a dramatic generational divide in retention that represents the steepest decline in the church’s modern history. While church leaders point to rising seminary enrollment and missionary numbers as evidence of growth, nationally representative data tells a starkly different story—one that cannot be ignored by those who care deeply about the future of the faith.

This essay examines the multifaceted reasons behind this exodus, with particular focus on the younger generations who are walking away in record numbers, drawing on the latest research, personal testimonies, and statistical analysis.

The Generational Divide: Numbers That Demand Attention

The Dramatic Shift in Retention

Recent comprehensive research by Jana Riess, Alex Bass, and Benjamin Knoll reveals a troubling trajectory. According to the analysis of General Social Survey data spanning five decades:

“The first graph from the General Social Survey, which asked about childhood religion as well as current religion, shows we’ve gone from retaining over three-quarters of childhood LDS members through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, to keeping around 40% in the 2020s — a statistically significant drop.”

The generational breakdown is even more striking:

• Greatest and Silent Generations: 29% left the church
• Baby Boomers: 33% left the church
• Generation X: 37% left the church
• Millennials and Gen Z: 55% left the church

This represents more than a statistical blip—it marks a fundamental shift in how younger Americans relate to institutional religion, with profound implications for a church that once boasted “legendary” retention rates among youth.

What Changed?

Sociologist Christian Smith, who led the National Study of Youth and Religion twenty years ago, captures this transformation precisely:

“While Mormon retention looked solid in the early 2000s, in the years since, as millennial Mormons moved through emerging adulthood, they began exiting the LDS Church in dramatic, unprecedented numbers.”

The church’s own celebration of these positive findings in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013 now reads like a historical artifact from a different era—one where the LDS Church could confidently claim superior youth retention compared to other American religions.

Historical Context and Current Trends

The LDS Church has historically prided itself on high retention rates, particularly among multigenerational families with deep roots in the faith. This cultural identity was not merely aspirational—it was backed by data. For decades, roughly 75% of those raised in the church remained active members throughout their lives.

However, recent comprehensive surveys paint a different picture. Jana Riess’s research, published in The Salt Lake Tribune in March 2024, reveals significant social dynamics at play:

“When Josh Coates and Stephen Cranney wanted to learn more about members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they had to strategize about the best ways to reach them. More and more people aren’t answering surveys, either by phone or online. Reaching a small minority population like Latter-day Saints is difficult.

So they resurrected an old-school methodology — sending 80,000 physical postcards to randomly selected households in the Mormon Corridor — and supplemented it with targeted Facebook ads to a Utah audience. Both methods led respondents to take an online survey that was then weighted to be representative of the Latter-day Saint population. After they removed late and invalid responses, they had a sample of 2,625 current and 1,183 former Latter-day Saints.”

Their findings revealed that approximately 20% of former members were married to believing Latter-day Saints, while 30% were married to other former members—indicating that faith transitions often involve entire family units rather than isolated individuals.

The church’s 2025 Almanac statistics confirm these trends with concrete numbers: a net loss of 17,174 members in Utah over the last three years. This represents a measurable decline in the church’s historic heartland, where cultural and social pressures to remain affiliated have traditionally been strongest.

Why Are Young Adults Leaving? The Primary Factors

1. Doctrinal and Historical Concerns

The 2023 survey conducted by Riess and Coates identified the top three reasons for leaving:

1. History related to the church founder, Joseph Smith
2. The Book of Mormon’s authenticity
3. Race issues

A former member, Sarah Mitchell, who left the church in 2023, articulated this common experience:

“The more I studied church history, the less I could reconcile the discrepancies between what was taught and what actually happened. It was a painful realization but necessary for my personal integrity.”

However, for younger generations, the pattern differs from that of older members. Research shows that doctrinal issues, while important, are not always the primary driver:

“Overall, we were surprised to find that doctrinal issues were not as important for young people who had left the church as they were for older Mormons. But for younger Mormons and for women of all ages, the experiential was more at the forefront.”

2. LGBTQ+ Issues: A Defining Flashpoint

Perhaps no single issue has driven more young people from the LDS Church than its policies and teachings regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. The data is unequivocal:

“In the survey, only 4% of current members identified as LGBTQ, compared with 18% of former members.”

This four-to-one ratio tells a powerful story about inclusion and belonging. Josh Coates, one of the survey’s architects, noted:

“There are a million questions to be asked there about why there’s a four times difference between current and former. One theory is that if you’re LGBT and you’re in the church, it’s not 100% compatible, and you’re going to leave. And so obviously that means there’s going to be a lot more former Latter-day Saints.”

The November 2015 Policy and Its Aftermath

The 2015 policy change that classified members in same-sex marriages as “apostates” and barred their children from baptism became a watershed moment. Trevor James, an excommunicated member now advocating for LGBTQ+ Latter-day Saints, captures the impact:

“The church’s approach to the LGBTQ+ community feels not just outdated but harmful. It’s pushing away a generation that values inclusivity and personal freedom.”

The broader religious landscape confirms this trend. A 2024 Public Religion Research Institute study found that approximately 60% of Americans under age 30 who left religion cited their faith’s negative teachings about LGBTQ+ people as a primary reason. This is significantly higher than older generations, revealing a fundamental generational shift in values.

Mental Health and Religious Trauma

The connection between LGBTQ+ issues and mental health within Mormon communities has become increasingly documented. Research shows:

“About one-third of religiously unaffiliated Americans say they no longer identify with their childhood religion because the religion was bad for their mental health. That response was strongest among LGBTQ respondents.”

For many LGBTQ+ Mormons, the choice between authentic self-expression and faith community becomes impossible to reconcile. Consider this testimony from a former member who spent five years in the leaving process:

“I still held a lot of beliefs and values that the Mormon community still had. I had to internally question all of that; I had to question a lot of the narratives that I’ve been taught since I was literally a baby. I, quite literally, had to recreate myself from the ground up.”

3. Women’s Roles and Gender Equality

Jana Riess’s research identified three primary reasons millennials leave:

1. They stopped believing there was one true church
2. They were not able to reconcile personal values with those of the Church
3. They did not like the emphasis on conformity and the role of women

A 2024 study by the Survey Center on American Life found that nearly two-thirds of Gen Z women surveyed said churches do not treat men and women equally. This generational expectation for gender equality clashes with traditional Mormon hierarchical structures, where ecclesiastical authority and decision-making power rest exclusively with men.

4. Values Misalignment and Authenticity

The comprehensive study documented by Mormonism Research Ministry reveals the most frequently cited reason for leaving:

“I could no longer reconcile my personal values and priorities with those of the Church” (38%)

Other top reasons included:

• “I stopped believing there was one true church” (36.5%)
• “I did not trust the Church leadership to tell the truth surrounding controversial or historical issues” (31%)
• “I felt judged or misunderstood” (30%)
• “The Church’s positions on LGBT issues” (23%)
• “The Church’s emphasis on conformity and obedience” (21%)
• “Lack of historical evidence for the Book of Mormon and/or Book of Abraham” (21%)
• “The role of women in the Church” (18%)

5. The Information Age and Digital Communities

The digital revolution has fundamentally altered how young people encounter and process religious claims. Unlike previous generations who relied primarily on church-approved sources, millennials and Gen Z have grown up with unprecedented access to:

• Critical historical scholarship
• Alternative interpretations of LDS teachings
• Support communities for those questioning or leaving
• Podcasts and social media platforms that validate doubts

As Travis McKie-Voerste, director of the Secular Therapy Project, observes:

“They might pop things into YouTube and [explore] ‘what’s the evidence that God exists?'”

This generation is also particularly sensitive to what McKie-Voerste calls “low-cred behaviors”—the gap between religious rhetoric and actual practice:

“If [someone has] parents that say, ‘As Christians, it’s important to love everybody,’ and then they see very different behaviors acted out … I think [they] start that questioning [and say] ‘This doesn’t feel right.'”

Statistical Insights: Understanding the Demographics

Age as the Primary Factor

Younger generations show dramatically higher departure rates. The General Social Survey indicates that retention for those born after 1981 has dropped to 46%—compared to the historical norm of 75%. This 29-percentage-point drop represents the loss of more than one in four young people who would have remained in previous generations.

The Education Correlation

Higher education correlates with an increased likelihood of leaving the church. Those with college degrees, particularly from non-church-affiliated institutions, tend to question or leave the faith more frequently. This presents the church with a challenging dilemma: as its members become more educated—something the church has historically encouraged—they become more likely to encounter perspectives that challenge orthodox narratives.

Geographic Patterns

The decline is most pronounced in urban areas. Salt Lake County, the church’s historic stronghold, has seen its LDS membership percentage steadily decrease, reaching 46.89% in 2021. This urban-rural divide mirrors broader American religious trends but carries particular significance for a church whose identity has been closely tied to specific geographic regions.

The Gender Shift

Recent research reveals an important and often overlooked pattern: young women are now leaving churches at unprecedented rates. This reverses historical patterns where women were more religiously engaged than men. For the LDS Church, which has traditionally relied on women to maintain family religious practices while excluding them from priesthood authority, this shift poses unique challenges.

Where Do They Go? Life After Mormonism

Perhaps the most sobering finding from Jana Riess’s research concerns what happens after members leave:

“Just under half (44 percent) have not become involved with another religious tradition since leaving Mormonism; these are represented . . . under the categories atheist, agnostic, and nothing in particular. Another fifth [21 percent] consider themselves ‘just Christian’ but do not specify a particular church, which likely means they have retained Christian beliefs but are not regular attenders. The remaining third (33 percent) now identify as something else, mostly remaining within the Christian orbit.”

Breaking down that final third:

• 11% joined other religions
• 10% became evangelical Protestants
• 7% are mainline Protestants
• 6% became Roman Catholics

Mormonism Research Ministry highlights a particularly concerning pattern:

“In other words, close to half of all former LDS members ‘have not become involved with another religious tradition’ and were willing to exchange ‘the one true church’ for absolutely nothing at all!”

This phenomenon may relate to a common saying among church members: “If the LDS Church isn’t true, then nothing else is.” Many former members internalized this binary thinking during their years in the church, making it difficult to explore alternative faith traditions after leaving.

The Journey of Faith Reconstruction

The emotional and spiritual cost of leaving cannot be understated. Many former members describe the process as requiring years of therapy, strained family relationships, and a fundamental reconstruction of identity. As one former member described:

“Breaking myself out of the Mormon mentality was excruciating. It felt like I had the rug ripped out from underneath my feet.”

The isolation can be profound, particularly in heavily Mormon communities where social, professional, and family networks are deeply intertwined with church membership. Those who leave often face:

• Severed relationships with family and friends who remain
• Social ostracism in Mormon-dominated communities
• Loss of cultural identity and community
• Grief over the loss of certainty and eternal family promises
• The challenge of rebuilding moral frameworks outside religious authority

The Church’s Response

The LDS Church has not remained passive in the face of declining retention. Recent changes aimed at member retention include:

• Reducing Sunday meetings from three hours to two hours
• Allowing missionaries more frequent family contact through phone calls and video chats
• Slightly moderating rhetoric on certain social issues
• Emphasizing personal spiritual experience over institutional authority
• Increased focus on temple worship and construction

In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a senior church leader, emphasized:

“We are continually seeking to understand and meet the spiritual needs of our members, adapting where we can while preserving the core doctrines of our faith.”

However, these adjustments have received mixed reviews. For many who have already left or are considering leaving, these changes feel insufficient—adjusting meeting schedules does nothing to address concerns about historical truth claims, LGBTQ+ inclusion, or women’s ecclesiastical authority.

Belief Patterns Among Those Who Leave

The 2023 survey reveals that leaving the LDS Church does not necessarily mean abandoning belief in God:

“The 2023 Current and Former Latter-day Saint Survey repeated a long-standing question from the General Social Survey about belief in God. Comparing the current and former members, the differences in belief are stark: Among current members, more than 7 in 10 say they ‘know God really exists and … have no doubts about it.’ That’s more than six times the rate of certainty about God among former members.”

However, most former members do “still have some kind of belief in something higher”—they simply lack the certainty that characterized their Mormon experience. This suggests that for many, leaving represents not a rejection of spirituality but a rejection of institutional claims to exclusive truth.

The Likelihood of Return

For those hoping former members might eventually return, the data offers little encouragement:

“The vast majority have no interest in returning to church activity. More than 4 out of 5 former members say that returning is ‘very unlikely,’ with an additional 10% saying it’s unlikely.”

Furthermore:

“A majority has very negative feelings about the church. Three out of 4 said they dislike or strongly dislike the church as an institution. In brighter news, they had a neutral to positive disposition toward the people.”

This distinction—disliking the institution while maintaining positive feelings toward individual members—reflects a common pattern where the problem lies not with the people but with the system, doctrines, and policies.

The Human Element: Personal Stories

Beyond statistics, personal stories illuminate the profound human cost of this exodus. Michael, who requested his last name be omitted, described his departure after 30 years of membership:

“Like losing my family’s language.”

This metaphor captures the deep cultural and linguistic severance many experience. For those raised in heavily Mormon environments, the church provides not just religious doctrine but an entire framework for understanding reality, relationships, and identity.

Conversely, Jane Doe, a practicing Latter-day Saint, argues for nuance:

“Not everyone leaves because of doctrine or scandal. Sometimes life just takes people in different directions, and they find faith elsewhere or within themselves.”

This reminder that faith journeys are complex and individualized is important. While patterns and trends help us understand the broader phenomenon, each person’s story involves unique circumstances, relationships, and spiritual seeking.

Comparative Context: Is This Unique to Mormonism?

The exodus from the LDS Church reflects broader trends across American Christianity, though with unique aspects specific to the Mormon experience.

Common Trends Across Religions

Rise of the “Nones”: Across the United States, approximately one-quarter of Americans claim no formal religious identity, with this trend more pronounced among younger generations. The LDS Church is experiencing this broader cultural shift along with other denominations.

Declining Membership and Attendance: Catholics, mainline Protestants (Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians), and even some evangelical groups report declining membership and attendance over the past two decades.

Cultural Shifts: Changing societal norms around sexuality, gender identity, marriage, and family life influence religious affiliation across all traditions. Young people increasingly reject institutions perceived as opposing equality and inclusion.

Access to Information: The internet and social media have democratized access to religious critique, alternative spiritualities, and support for those questioning faith across all traditions.

Educational Influence: Higher education correlates with lower religious affiliation rates across denominations as people encounter diverse worldviews and critical analysis of religious texts.

Unique Aspects of the LDS Church Experience

Higher Historical Expectations: The LDS Church’s historically superior retention rates make current losses feel more dramatic. The church built its identity partly on its ability to keep young people, making current trends particularly challenging to confront.

Specific Doctrinal and Historical Issues: The church faces unique challenges related to the authenticity of its founding texts (Book of Mormon, Book of Abraham), polygamy’s legacy, and historical racial policies. These issues have no direct parallel in other Christian denominations.

Missionary Experience: The two-year missionary program, while intended to strengthen faith, can paradoxically lead to disillusionment. Young adults who return from missions sometimes find their critical thinking skills sharpened by defending the faith, only to turn those same skills toward examining their own beliefs.

Cultural Homogeneity: In regions where the LDS Church dominates (Utah, parts of Idaho and Arizona), leaving carries profound social costs unmatched in religiously diverse areas. The potential isolation from community and family creates unique pressure to remain despite doubts.

Truth Claims and Binary Thinking: The church’s claim to be “the only true church” creates higher stakes for doubt. Many members have internalized the message that if Mormonism isn’t true, then nothing is—making exploration of alternative faith traditions psychologically difficult.

Implications and Looking Forward

The challenge facing the LDS Church is not simply numerical decline—though that matters—but rather what these trends reveal about the institution’s relationship with its youngest members. When 55% of millennials and Gen Z raised in the faith choose to leave, it suggests more than individual failures of testimony; it indicates systemic issues that traditional approaches cannot address.

The Core Dilemma

The church faces a fundamental tension: How can it adapt to changing cultural values while maintaining the doctrinal distinctiveness that defines Mormon identity? Changes that might appeal to liberal-leaning youth risk alienating conservative members, and maintaining doctrinal purity risks accelerating youth departure.

Questions for Reflection

For church members and leaders grappling with these trends:

• Can a religious tradition claiming exclusive truth claims coexist with pluralistic values?
• Is it possible to maintain rigid gender roles in an era of gender equality expectations?
• Can the church find authentic ways to welcome LGBTQ+ individuals without fundamentally revising doctrine?
• How should faith communities balance historical honesty with faith-promoting narratives?
• What does it mean to be a “worldwide church” when growth occurs primarily outside the United States while the American core declines?

“Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the
Latter-day Saints with it and see if it will stand the test,”
(Brigham Young, May 18, 1873,
Journal of Discourses, vol. 16, p. 46).

For Those Considering Leaving or Who Have Left

The research makes clear you are not alone. Your questions are valid. Your concerns are shared by hundreds of thousands of others. The journey is difficult, but support communities exist—both online and in person—for those navigating faith transitions.

Most importantly, whether you leave or stay does not determine your worth, your capacity for spiritual experience, or your moral character. As one researcher noted, many who leave remain deeply spiritual people seeking truth and authentic connection to the divine.

An Invitation to Biblical Christianity

In a previous reflection, I extended an invitation that bears repeating here: this journey of honest inquiry need not end in spiritual wilderness. Orthodox Christianity offers something fundamentally different from the system you may be leaving—not another institution demanding unquestioning loyalty, but a genuine relationship with the living Christ of Scripture.

This is not about trading one set of truth claims for another, but about encountering the Jesus who actually appears in the pages of the New Testament: the One who welcomes doubters (John 20:27¹Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”), invites the weary (Matthew 11:28²Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.), and promises that all who seek will find (Matthew 7:7-8³7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.). Biblical Christianity does not require you to suppress critical thinking or ignore difficult questions. Instead, it invites you into a faith that has withstood two millennia of rigorous examination precisely because it is grounded in historical events, testified to by eyewitnesses, and centered on a Person rather than a system.

The transition may feel daunting, but thousands have discovered that leaving one faith tradition can open the door to something more ancient, more tested, and more grace-filled than they imagined possible.

Conclusion

The reasons members—particularly young members—are leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2026 are complex, interconnected, and deeply personal. They encompass historical questions, doctrinal concerns, social issues, questions of authority and authenticity, and the profound tension between institutional loyalty and personal integrity.

What the data reveals is not a simple story of apostasy or faithlessness, but rather a generation seeking authenticity, inclusion, and alignment between professed values and lived reality. Many leave not because they’ve stopped caring about spirituality, goodness, or community—but precisely because they care deeply about these things and cannot find them within institutional structures that feel increasingly at odds with their values.

For the church, the challenge ahead involves more than adjusting meeting schedules or softening rhetoric. It requires honest reckoning with difficult histories, genuine inclusion of marginalized groups, and a willingness to value questions as much as answers.

For those who have left, the journey continues—often involving grief, reconstruction, and the slow work of building new frameworks for meaning and community.

And for those who remain, these trends demand compassion, curiosity, and resistance to simplistic explanations that dismiss the genuine spiritual seeking of those who choose different paths.

As the church looks to the future, the balance between maintaining core beliefs and adapting to a changing world has never been more crucial. Meanwhile, for the growing number who have left, the journey often continues in search of new spiritual or secular identities—part of broader trends in religious affiliation and disaffiliation that define 21st-century American spirituality.

The exodus from the LDS Church is not merely a Mormon story. It is a window into how religious institutions navigate authenticity, authority, and adaptation in an age of unprecedented access to information, evolving social values, and generational shifts in what it means to belong.

For an in-depth comparison of traditional Christianity vs Mormonism, check out our post, “Mormonism Unveiled: Exploring the Doctrinal Divide from Christianity.”

My prayer for you is that you would truly understand
what it means to believe in Jesus from the Word…

This analysis is based on publicly available research, including studies by Jana Riess, Benjamin Knoll, Alex Bass, Josh Coates, Stephen Cranney, and organizations including Pew Research Center, the General Social Survey, Public Religion Research Institute, and Mormonism Research Ministry.

Footnote

• 1
  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
• 2
  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
• 3
  7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.