A new report confirms young people who are religious are happier, healthier, and more successful than those who are not.
Research from the Institute for Family Studies shows that since 2000, unhappiness among young adults has more than doubled. Socializing is down more than 50%, and two-thirds of young people are not in any serious relationship.
IFS writes, “Anxiety, depression and anti-social behavior are way up, especially among young people. An increasing number of them hold catastrophic views of the world and report a lack of agency over their own lives.”
But researchers identified two groups of young people who are thriving.
Married and religious young adults are five times more likely to say they are “very happy” compared to their secular, unmarried peers.
Religious young men finish college and trade school at far higher rates than non-religious men and are almost twice as likely to report a sense of purpose and meaning in life.
As the Institute for Family Studies put it, “faith and family remain two of the strongest bulwarks against loneliness and despair.”
We have written before about how marriage is broadly connected with better health and wellbeing — and how churches and religious charities provide billions of dollars in services to communities every year.
All of this underscores what many of us have said for years: Strong faith and strong marriages are the keys to building strong communities.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
