Writing for Providence Magazine, RFI’s Paul Marshall underscores the role of religion in human flourishing according to the first findings of a new, ongoing worldwide survey. Marshall also highlights that Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, scores highest, and illuminates factors that contribute to the country’s religiosity and flourishing civil society. He writes:

April 30, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) and Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program, along with Gallup and the Center for Open Science, released the first findings of their ongoing worldwide survey of human flourishing. The press usually ignores such studies, but the scale and results of this survey have drawn the attention, including from the New York Times and Atlantic. 

The survey’s delineation of “flourishing” includes health, happiness, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security, and included interviews with over 200,000 people in 22 countries, chosen for geographic, cultural, and religious diversity. It will re-interview each year for the next five years and may be the widest such survey ever attempted.  

Among its findings are that, while countries vary, worldwide men and women report similar results and younger people are now sadly doing worse than their elders. 

One finding of particular interest to Providence readers is that those who attend religious services tend to flourish more. Unlike other trends the survey reports, this result does not vary much from country to country, though the effect is strongest in the most secular, usually western, countries. Despite frequent press reports about the negative effects of religion on human life, this is consistent with most serious social science. Of course, there are exceptions, as with ISIS or the Taliban, but this survey reinforces the conclusion that serious religion generally correlates with human wellbeing. 

Read the full article: “Largest Longitudinal Study of Human Flourishing Ever Shows Religion’s Importance.”