People Who Attend Worship Services Regularly Are Happier Than Others, Study Suggests

A new Pew Research Center study investigates the connection between religion and well-being.

People who are active members of a religious community are more likely than those who don’t have those strong religious ties to describe themselves as “very happy,” a new Pew Research Center study has found.

In America, 36 percent of regular worship service attendees say they are “very happy,” compared with 25 percent of infrequent attendees and 25 percent of the religiously unaffiliated.

After analyzing data from over 20 countries, Pew researchers concluded that people who regularly participate in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged than their peers who are infrequent attendees or who don’t identify with a religion at all.

These apparent disparities in happiness and civic involvement may suggest that countries experiencing a decline in religious engagement, like the U.S., “could be at risk for declines in personal and societal well-being,” the researchers claimed in the study published Thursday.

But there are a few caveats in the study, which Pew outlined in detailed sidebars in the report. click here to continue reading»

Source: HuffingtonPost.com, Religion