{"id":32279,"date":"2022-09-10T16:03:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/research-finds-church-attendance-linked-to-personal-happiness\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:03:17","slug":"research-finds-church-attendance-linked-to-personal-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/research-finds-church-attendance-linked-to-personal-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Finds Church Attendance Linked to Personal Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nicole Honeywill photo – Unsplash<\/div>\n

By Aaron Earls<\/em><\/p>\n

Around the world, religious people are more likely to be happy than irreligious people\u2014but only if they show up to church on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In analyzing survey data from the United States and more than two dozen other countries, Pew Research discovered people who are active in religious congregations \u201ctend to be happier and more civically engaged than either religiously unaffiliated adults or inactive members of religious groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pew broke respondents into three categories: actives, those who identified with a religious group and attended services at least once a month; inactives, those who identified with a religious group but attended less frequently; religiously unaffiliated, those who do not identify with a religious group.<\/p>\n

In the United States, 40 percent of adults are considered religiously active, 27 percent are inactive, and 34 percent are religiously unaffiliated.<\/p>\n

According to Pew\u2019s analysis \u201cregular participation in religious community clearly is linked with higher levels of happiness \u2026. This may suggest that societies with declining levels of religious engagement, like the U.S., could be at risk for declines in personal and societal well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the United States, 36 percent of religiously active adults say they are \u201cvery happy,\u201d compared to 25 percent of both inactives and religiously unaffiliated.<\/p>\n

In additional to personal happiness, those who regularly attend church in the U.S. are more likely to say they are in very good health, don\u2019t currently smoke, avoid frequent drinking, and exercise several times per week.<\/p>\n

The religiously unaffiliated are slightly more likely than religious active adults to say they aren\u2019t obese. Both are more likely to say so than inactives.<\/p>\n

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Those who are active a religious organization are also more likely to be socially active in other ways, including belonging to a non-religious organization and always voting in national elections.<\/p>\n

The happiness gap is not limited to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross 25 other countries for which data are available, actives report being happier than the unaffiliated by a statistically significant margin in almost half (12 countries),\u201d according to the report, \u201cand happier than inactively religious adults in roughly one-third (nine) of the countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Aaron Earls<\/h2>\n

@WardrobeDoor<\/p>\n

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Aaron is a writer for LifewayResearch.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n