Gallup recently conducted a poll of Americans in which it examined how satisfied Americans are with their lives and found that not only is life satisfaction on a year-over-year downtrend, but that life satisfaction is at one of its lowest points in decades. Not all the news was bad news, however. The poll also found that those who attend church weekly tend to have much more life satisfaction than those who don’t.
The Gallup poll found that just 47 percent of Americans are “very satisfied with their lives,” the marker the poll service used to find high fulfillment and contentedness with life. That shockingly low number is a near-record low for Americans, as it is only the third time in the past two decades that the proportion of Americans who are “very satisfied” with life dipped below 50 percent.
Further, the result was a year-over-year downtrend for Americans, with this year’s polling result a three percentage point decrease from last year. The reasons for that decrease in satisfaction touched on a number of sentiments, among them were inflation woes and the general concern about America’s increasingly dismal state of affairs.
But, while Americans generally are down in the dumps about life, some groups stand out as being much more satisfied with life than the average American. Namely, regular churchgoers have much more life satisfaction than those who never attend church, the Gallup poll showed.
According to Gallup, only 41 percent of those who seldom or never attend church expressed that they were “very satisfied with their lives.” By contrast, those who attend church on a monthly or “nearly weekly” basis are “very satisfied” with life at a 52 percent rate, and those who attend religious services weekly are “very satisfied” with life at a 56 percent rate.
In addition to faith showing a benefit for life satisfaction, a few other life choices and situations appear to show similarly large benefits. According to Gallup, 58 percent of those who make a household income of $100,000 are “very satisfied” with life at a 58 percent rate. Meanwhile the married are similarly satisfied, with 57 percent “very satisfied.” 54 percent of college graduates said the same.
Gallup, commenting on the results and what they show, noted that the low levels of life satisfaction is the lowest it has been since the wake of the Great Financial Crisis, saying, “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 added, “This lower satisfaction level coincides with weak economic confidence.”
But, while Americans generally are down in the dumps and the economic situation looks increasingly dire, it still appears that those who regularly attend church are able to find some measure of life satisfaction, whatever the general situation in America right now.
Featured image credit: By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18664138