Faith and wellbeing are connected in research through several pathways: religious participation, meaning and hope, prayer, social connection, health behaviors, and physical health. The findings below include surveys, longitudinal studies, trials, and research reviews. They describe associations unless a study specifically tested an intervention, and they cover different countries and measurement periods.
Contents
- Faith, participation, and happiness
- Meaning, hope, and positive emotion
- Depression, anxiety, and suicide outcomes
- Prayer and spiritually oriented interventions
- Religious community and civic wellbeing
- Health behaviors and physical wellbeing
Faith, participation, and happiness
The relationship between faith and happiness varies by country, religious identity, and participation. In the United States, 36% of adults who identified with a religion and attended services at least monthly said they were very happy in 2012. That compared with 25% of less-frequent attenders and 25% of religiously unaffiliated adults. These figures come from Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the World by Pew Research Center: Pew Research Center report.
Australia showed a similar gap in the 2010–2014 period: 45% of actively religious adults said they were very happy, compared with 32% of inactive religious adults and 33% of unaffiliated adults. Across 25 countries outside the United States, actively religious adults were significantly happier than unaffiliated adults in 12 countries and happier than inactive religious adults in 9. After adjustment for age, gender, education, income, and marital status, actively religious adults were happier than the rest of the population in 13 of 26 countries. The comparisons are cross-national associations, not proof that religious participation itself caused happiness.
Prospective U.S. evidence also reports small positive relationships. In cohort follow-up windows from 2001–2016, weekly-or-more religious-service attendance was associated with a combined positive-affect coefficient of β=0.10 and a life-satisfaction coefficient of β=0.12, each compared with never attending. The study is Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood.
During the 2020–2021 lockdown period, UK adults who participated in online religious activity less than once per week had higher life satisfaction than those with no participation, with standardized β=0.25. The same comparison found higher happiness, also with standardized β=0.25. These results concern online participation during lockdown and should not be generalized automatically to every setting. See Associations of online religious participation during COVID-19 lockdown.
Meaning, hope, and positive emotion
Meaning and purpose are among the strongest positive themes in the reviewed literature. A review of quantitative studies published through mid-2010 found that 256 of 326 studies, or 79%, reported only significant positive associations between religion or spirituality and wellbeing. Among 120 higher-quality wellbeing studies, 98, or 82%, reported positive relationships. These are literature-review counts, not a single population estimate, and the review does not establish that every religious practice improves wellbeing.
The same review reported the following results:
| Outcome | Findings in reviewed studies | Period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Hope | 29 of 40 studies (73%) reported only significant positive relationships | Studies through mid-2010 |
| Optimism | 26 of 32 studies (81%) reported significant positive relationships | Studies through mid-2010 |
| Meaning or purpose | 42 of 45 studies (93%) reported significant positive relationships | Studies through mid-2010 |
| Self-esteem | 42 of 69 studies (61%) found greater self-esteem | Studies through mid-2010 |
| Personal control in difficult circumstances | 13 of 21 studies (61%) reported greater control | Studies through mid-2010 |
For relational and character outcomes, 7 of 10 higher-quality studies reported greater forgiveness among people with greater religion or spirituality. All 5 studies examining gratefulness reported positive associations, and all 3 studies examining kindness or compassion reported significant positive relationships. The source is Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications. Because the review includes studies from different designs and populations, these percentages summarize patterns in the evidence rather than individual risk changes.
Depression, anxiety, and suicide outcomes
The evidence on mental health is substantial but mixed. Of 444 studies on religion or spirituality and depression, 272 (61%) reported significant inverse relationships, while 28 (6%) reported greater depression. Among 178 higher-quality depression studies, 119 (67%) reported inverse relationships and 13 (7%) reported positive relationships with depression. Among 70 prospective cohort studies, 39 (56%) found that greater religion or spirituality predicted lower depression or faster remission.
Intervention evidence was also favorable in parts of the review. Among 30 clinical trials, 19 (63%) found that religion or spirituality interventions produced better depression outcomes than standard treatment or controls. A 30-year community follow-up found religious-service attendance associated with a 0.518-unit average annual reduction in depressive-symptom scores versus nonattendance. In a study published in 2008, regular religious-service attendance was associated with 30% lower odds of depression, while participants in the top tertile of existential wellbeing had 70% lower odds than those in the bottom tertile. See Religious service attendance and spiritual well-being are differentially associated with risk of major depression.
For suicide outcomes, 106 of 141 reviewed studies (75%) reported inverse relationships and 4 (3%) reported positive relationships. Among 49 higher-quality studies, 39 (80%) reported less suicide, fewer attempts, or more negative attitudes toward suicide among more religious or spiritual participants. For anxiety, 147 of 299 studies (49%) reported inverse associations and 33 (11%) reported greater anxiety; 9 of 19 longitudinal studies (47%) reported that religion or spirituality predicted lower anxiety over time, and 22 of 32 randomized anxiety trials (69%) reported better results than standard care or control.
The Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study, published in 2011, found that attending religious services at least annually was associated with lower odds of a subsequent suicide attempt: adjusted odds ratio 0.33 (95% CI 0.13–0.84). Seeking spiritual comfort was associated with lower odds of subsequent suicidal ideation: adjusted odds ratio 0.55 (95% CI 0.31–0.99). These are observational results from longitudinal waves 3–4. Source: Baltimore epidemiologic catchment area study.
Prayer and spiritually oriented interventions
Intervention studies ask a different question from survey studies: whether a defined spiritual practice or intervention is followed by a measurable change. In a 2026 randomized primary-care trial, Christian proximal intercessory prayer produced pain reductions 1–2 points larger than a music control immediately and two weeks later. The same trial found anxiety reductions roughly 2 points larger for prayer immediately and at two- and six-week follow-up. It reported a significant group effect on GAD-7 anxiety scores at two and six weeks (p=0.04) and a significant between-group effect on immediate pre/post Likert anxiety (p=0.001). Source: Prayer for Pain and Anxiety in a Primary Care Setting.
A nursing-care systematic review and meta-analysis of trials identified through July 2020 found that spiritual interventions were associated with lower mental-health symptoms, standardized mean difference −6.91 (95% CI −9.83 to −3.98). It also found greater wellbeing, standardized mean difference 1.26 (95% CI 0.58–1.93), and higher spirituality, standardized mean difference 0.48 (95% CI 0.29–0.67). Source: The efficacy of religious and spiritual interventions in nursing care.
In a one-year follow-up published in 2012, 44 women who received six weekly one-hour person-to-person prayer sessions had significantly lower depression and anxiety than baseline at one month and one year, with p<0.01 for each comparison. The study is The effect of prayer on depression and anxiety. The sample size and design matter when interpreting its findings; it does not provide a universal effect size for prayer.
Religious community and civic wellbeing
Religious participation can be connected to wellbeing through relationships and shared activity. In a 2011 U.S. survey, 41% of adults said they were active in church groups or other religious or spiritual organizations. In U.S. survey data from 2010–2014, 58% of actively religious adults were active in at least one nonreligious voluntary organization, compared with 51% of inactive religious adults and 39% of unaffiliated adults.
Outside the United States during 2010–2014, actively religious adults were more likely than inactive religious adults to join community groups in 11 of 25 countries. They were more likely than unaffiliated adults to belong to voluntary organizations in 7 of 25 countries. In the United States, 69% of actively religious adults said they always voted in national elections. Outside the United States, actively religious adults were more likely than unaffiliated adults to report always voting in 11 of 24 countries and more likely than inactive religious adults to report it in 9 of 24 countries. These measures describe civic engagement, not a prescription about how anyone should vote. Source: Pew Research Center report.
A prospective cohort mediation analysis published in 2019 found that increased life satisfaction accounted for 5.27% of the association between religious-service attendance and mortality. Contact with friends accounted for 10.73% of that association. These percentages describe mediation in that analysis; they do not mean that attendance reduces mortality by exactly either percentage. Source: Mediators of the Association Between Religious Service Attendance and Mortality.
Health behaviors and physical wellbeing
The international evidence on health behaviors is uneven. In the ISSP 2011 Health and Health Care module, actively religious adults were less likely than unaffiliated adults to drink several times per week in 9 of 19 countries. When inactive religious and unaffiliated adults were combined, actively religious adults were less likely to drink frequently in 11 of 19 countries. After demographic controls, actively religious adults drank less frequently in 8 of 19 countries and drank more only in the Czech Republic.
Actively religious adults were less likely than unaffiliated adults to have ever smoked in 17 of 19 countries and less likely than inactive religious adults to have ever smoked in 18 of 19. They were less likely than unaffiliated adults to exercise several times per week in 5 countries, more likely in 1, and not significantly different in 13. They were more likely than unaffiliated adults to be obese in 5 countries, with no significant difference in the other 14. In U.S. prospective cohorts, weekly-or-more service attendance was associated with 34% lower heavy-drinking risk and 29% lower current-smoking risk versus never attending. Source: Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood and Pew Research Center report.
In the United States, 32% of actively religious adults reported very good health, compared with 27% of inactive religious adults and 25% of unaffiliated adults in the 2010–2014 World Values Survey. After demographic controls, actively religious adults were about as likely as others to report very good health in 23 of 25 countries.
Mortality findings require especially careful interpretation. In the Black Women’s Health Study, attending religious services several times per week was associated with mortality rate ratio 0.64 (95% CI 0.51–0.80) versus never attending during 2005–December 2013 follow-up. In the same study, praying more than twice daily had mortality rate ratio 1.28 (95% CI 0.99–1.67) versus praying weekly or less after adjustment for other religious and spiritual variables. Source: Attendance at Religious Services, Prayer, Religious Coping, and Religious/Spiritual Identity.
Across the religion and spirituality mortality literature reviewed through mid-2010, 82 of 121 studies (68%) reported significantly greater longevity with greater religion or spirituality, while 6 (5%) reported shorter longevity. Among 63 methodologically rigorous mortality studies, 47 (75%) reported greater longevity and 3 (5%) reported shorter longevity. Three separate reviews reported average survival increases of 37%, 43%, and 30% for frequent religious-service attendance. These are historical review findings and should not be treated as independently verified current estimates.