The measurable returns of showing up
Fifty-two years of survey data, three Pew Religious Landscape Studies, Harvard longitudinal cohorts, Gallup's Global Flourishing Study, and the World Values Survey converge on the same finding: people who attend religious services at least monthly report better outcomes across nearly every measurable dimension of well-being.
Active vs inactive, pick a metric
Select an outcome. Gold marks the religiously active group when higher is better; burgundy when lower is better (loneliness).
Where people leave, and where they go
Fine-cut Pew landscape: Protestant families, other Christian, other religions, and unaffiliated split into atheist / agnostic / nothing in particular. Purple / gold / burgundy / gray families. No labels on the circle — use the key. Click a swatch or arc.
Raised → current identification
Ribbon width = share of US adults. Faint self-loops are retention. Side key lists every group and its net pp change.
Does college drive people out?
Overall switching rates are largely flat by education. But the pattern varies by denomination. Latter-day Saints are more likely to retain their faith with higher education, not less. Catholics and evangelicals show the opposite pattern.
Retention by education level
Slope chart: each line connects no-college retention to college+ retention. Lines sloping down = education correlates with leaving. LDS (gold) slopes up.
A dose-response on mortality
The Harvard Nurses' Health Study tracked 74,534 women over 16 years. Those attending services more than once per week had 33% lower all-cause mortality. Rings: larger = higher hazard. Gold = most frequent attendance.
Mortality risk by attendance frequency
Concentric rings sized by hazard ratio relative to never attending. Lower (inner) is better.
Landscape shift and global check
US religious composition, 1972-2024
Connected dots by group share over time. Unaffiliated (burgundy) rises; Protestant (purple) falls.
Weekly attenders' flourishing edge by country
Weekly attenders minus never-attenders on Gallup/WVS well-being measures. United States in gold. Not a switching trend — a same-time attendance comparison.
- Pew Research Center, 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (n=36,908)
- Pew Research Center, “Religious Switching” February 2025 (fine-cut denominational families)
- VanderWeele et al., JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016 (n=74,534)
- Chen et al., International Journal of Epidemiology, 2021
- General Social Survey 1972-2024, NORC
- Gallup / Harvard Human Flourishing Program, Global Flourishing Study Wave 1, 2024
- World Values Survey Association, Waves 1-7