A new poll found a near-record low of Americans are “very satisfied” with their lives, with just 47% of adults expressing high fulfillment and contentedness.
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This is only the third time in the past two decades that Gallup has seen the proportion dip below 50%, with a three percentage point decrease in the last year, as the polling firm noted.
Lower life satisfaction comes amid concerns over the state of affairs, inflation woes, and other sentiments. But it seems a few groups stand out regarding their higher-than-average satisfaction. Among them: faithful churchgoers.
In fact, a total of 56% of U.S. Adults who attend religious services weekly say they are very satisfied with how things are going in their personal lives, with 52% of those who attend nearly weekly or monthly saying the same.
Just 41% who seldom of never attend express the same, showing the full benefit of faith.
Meanwhile, 58% of people who have an annual household income of $100,000 or more, 57% of people who are married, and 54% of college graduates say the same.
Two other groups who cross the 50% threshold are Democrats (52%) and people aged 55 and older (51%).
“Americans are currently less satisfied with their personal lives than they have been since 2011, whether that is based on the percentage satisfied or very satisfied,” Gallup noted in its conclusion. “This lower satisfaction level coincides with weak economic confidence.”
The text continued, “However, some groups of U.S. adults are still registering majority-level high satisfaction with their lives, including higher-income, married, more religious, college educated, older Americans and Democrats.”
Gallup’s finding that church attendance and faith yield happiness fall in mine with previous research on the matter.
As CBN’s Faithwire has reported, numerous studies show the power and importance of faith in Americans’ lives. Last years’ the American Bible Society’s 13th “State of the Bible” report revealed “Scripture-engaged individuals were shown to have the highest levels of persevering hope.”
A past Barna Group survey exposed a stunning relational disparity between practicing Christians and U.S. adults more generally. While 61% of practicing Christians said they are flourishing in friendships and relationships, just 28% of U.S. adults said the same, according to The Christian Post.
Church attendance also seems to yield some intensely positive benefits. Gallup Senior Scientist Frank Newport reported last year on statistics found by his polling firm backing the notion that attending religious services has a compelling impact on people’s life views.
“The January Gallup data indicate that 92% of those who attend church services weekly are satisfied, compared with 82% of those who attend less than monthly,” Newport wrote. “The difference is even more evident in terms of the percentage who report being very satisfied — 67% of those who attend weekly are very satisfied with their personal life, compared with 48% among those who are infrequent attenders.”
Meanwhile, 44% of weekly churchgoers told Gallup they would describe their “mental health and emotional wellbeing” as “excellent.” This compares to 46% who said the same in 2020 and 42% of regular congregants who reported “excellent” mental health in 2019, holding relatively steady.
Read more about the benefits of faith here.
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