by Carrie Sheffield
Charlie Kirk knew the keys to happiness in life are simple: faith, family, and freedom. New data on religious practice confirms Charlie was right: People attending church are much happier than people who don’t.
God wants us encouraged alongside other believers, and new research from Ryan Burge at Washington University in St. Louis, illustrates the power of worshipping alongside fellow spiritual travelers.
“Highly active religious people are happier than non-religious people,” Burge wrote in his analysis of Pew Religious Landscape Survey data. “There’s no other way to spin this data than this simple conclusion … People who identify as Christians are significantly more likely to be very happy compared to those who are non-religious.”
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Generationally, Burge also found that “The impact of religiosity on happiness is especially large among folks born in the 1980s and 1990s.”
Online church services have a positive correlation with happiness, but as COVID lockdowns showed us, there is no substitute for in-person worship.
“People who attend a house of worship in person are significantly happier than those who never attend,” Burge noted. “There’s a positive effect for online worship, but it’s more muted.”