While a growing share of adults have been focusing on diet and exercise to achieve better health, a new report from the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University shows that religious involvement, particularly among black Americans, is associated with longer life and a host of positive health outcomes.
The report, titled “The Religion and Physical Health Connection: What Does the Best Science Reveal?,” is the second installment in the institute’s three-part “Religion and Human Flourishing” series.
It reviewed 1,000 high-quality studies highlighted in the 2024 “Handbook of Religion and Health.” The review found that an overwhelming majority — 876 studies — reported a beneficial relationship between religion and health. Only 124 studies reported adverse associations.
Frequent religious attendance was associated with greater longevity in 83% of the studies, showing an approximately 34% reduction in mortality risk. One study of more than 20,000 adults found that those who attended religious services frequently lived an average of 7.6 years longer than those who did not. The disparity nearly doubled to 13.7 years among black Americans.
“These are not fringe findings from a handful of studies — they reflect a consistent pattern across hundreds of the most rigorous investigations in the field,” said Loren D. Marks, a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University and the lead author of the report, in a statement shared with The Christian Post.
“The data indicate that religious involvement is one of the most robust predictors of better physical health outcomes available in the research literature, and it deserves far greater attention in public health conversations.”
Some 98% of the studies found that higher religiosity was linked to lower rates of smoking. The studies also showed that religious individuals have lower rates of substance abuse and addiction, stroke and related disorders, better immune function, and healthier stress hormone levels.
“After four decades of research and thousands of studies, the pattern is remarkably clear: religious involvement is associated with better physical health across virtually every domain we’ve examined,” Harold Koenig, a co-author of the review, said. “These are not isolated findings — they represent one of the most consistent relationships in all of health science.”
The findings come as data from a recent Gallup study found that Americans with no formal religious identity, popularly known as the “nones,” reached a record share of the population in 2025. Fewer than 50% of adults also reported that religion is “very important” in their lives.
The study, based on interviews with more than 13,000 U.S. adults conducted through Gallup’s monthly 2025 surveys, found that the share of Americans identifying as “nones” reached a new high of 24%, up from 21% to 22% over the previous four years. The share of Americans identifying as “nones” grew steadily from 2% in 1948 to its current record.
Only 47% of American adults reported that religion is “very important” in their lives, while another 25% said it is “fairly important” to them.
The share of Americans who say religion is “very important” in their lives has remained below 50% in recent years. It has gradually declined from 58% in 2012 and from 70% to 75% in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Gallup.
“Americans’ relationship with religion continues to evolve, marked by fewer adults describing religion as central to their lives, rising religious nonaffiliation and persistently low levels of religious service attendance,” Megan Brenan, a senior editor at Gallup, concluded.
The survey found that while a majority of all demographic groups in America said their faith was very important to them from 2001 to 2005, only six groups remain highly religious today, with well over 50% saying religion is very important in their lives. They are Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Republicans, Protestant or nondenominational Christians, black adults, adults ages 65 and older, and Southerners. Majorities of lower-income Americans, women, and adults ages 50–64.
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