RFI’s Paul Marshall wrote an article published in Religion Unplugged on a groundbreaking new study examining human flourishing across the globe which is garnering attention because of its “mammoth scale, rigorous analysis and often-surprising results.” Marshall highlights some of the key and surprising findings on religion and wealth, writing:

…Those who attend religious services flourish more. Unlike some of the other measures, this is consistently important across almost all countries and its effects are strongest in the most secular, usually western, countries. Despite common reports in the popular press about the baneful effects of religion on human life, this finding is consistent with most serious social science surveys. Of course, there are dramatic exceptions, just think ISIS or Afghanistan, but overall serious religion correlates with human wellbeing.

The WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic) countries do not come out on top. Richer developed countries score higher on financial security and life evaluation but poorer nations more than make up for this on meaning and purpose, and relationships. Strikingly, in general, meaning in life and composite flourishing is negatively correlated with GDP per capita. Money is not making people flourish more.

Putting aside financial indicators, the top five ranking countries are, in order, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Israel and Nigeria. When financial indicators are included the top five are Indonesia, Israel, Philippines, Mexico and Poland. On these two measures, out of 22 countries the U.S. comes in at 15th and 11th, respectively, while the U.K. is 20th, almost at the bottom, in both measures.

We should be cautious about quick takes on these results. But we can say that, for human flourishing, meaning, purpose, community, relationships, and religion count more than wealth and success. Which comports with most wisdom and religious teaching.

Read the full article: “Keys To Human Flourishing: Faith And Relationships Outweigh Wealth.”