Religious/Spiritual Connection and Subjective Well-Being Across Religious and Nonreligious Individuals in 121 Countries

Abstract

Prior research suggests a positive association between some religious/spiritual variables and well-being. However, many measures of religious/spiritual constructs are often within explicitly religious contexts, limiting the conceptualization of links between spiritual connection and well-being among nonreligious individuals. The present study employs a novel, versatile measure assessing how frequently individuals feel connected to a religion or form of spirituality. Using nationally representative 2021 Gallup World Poll data from 121 countries (N = 125,843), we describe the distribution of religious/spiritual connection and examine its associations with subjective well-being among religious and nonreligious individuals. A majority of individuals worldwide—including many who are nonreligious—reported “often/always” feeling religious/spiritual connection. Adjusting for relevant covariates, religious/spiritual connection associated positively with subjective well-being in the global sample of religious individuals and, in some countries, nonreligious individuals (effect sizes were mostly small). Cross-national variation points to the complex role of religious/spiritual connection in shaping subjective well-being globally.

Keywords

religion spirituality health subjective well-being nonreligious

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Augustyn

B. D.

Hall

T. W.

Wang

D. C.

Hill

P. C.

(2017). Relational spirituality: An attachment-based model of spiritual development and psychological well-being. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 9(2), 197–208. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000100

Bengtson

V. L.

Silverstein

Putney

N. M.

Harris

S. C.

(2015). Does religiousness increase with age? Age changes and generational differences over 35 years. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 54(2), 363–379. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12183

Chen

Z. J.

Cowden

R. G.

Streib

(2023). More spiritual than religious: Concurrent and longitudinal relations with personality traits, mystical experiences, and other individual characteristics. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 1025938. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1025938

Chen

Z. J.

Steppacher

Streib

(2024). Religious or spiritual? Text analysis of free entries in defining religiosity and spirituality. In Streib

Hood

R. W.

(Eds.), Faith in development: Mixed-method studies on worldviews and religious styles (pp. 137–152). Bielefeld University Press.

Cohen

A. B.

Johnson

K. A.

(2017). The relation between religion and well-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 12(3), 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-016-9475-6

Cowden

R. G.

Counted

M. Y.

(2023). Positive psychology and religion/spirituality across cultures in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. In Davis

E. B.

Worthington

E. L.

Schnitker

S. A.

(Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology, religion, and spirituality (pp. 243–259). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10274-5_16

Cook

K. V.

Cowden

R. G.

(2025). After we transgress God’s values: Relational spirituality as a paradigm for the Christian experience of reconciliation with God. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1587704. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1587704

Cowden

R. G.

Davoodi

Diego-Rosell

Lomas

Lai

A. Y.

(2025). Religious/spiritual connection and subjective wellbeing around the world: A cross-sectional analysis with nationally representative samples from 121 countries. In Davis

E. B.

Worthington

E. L.

Jr. Schnitker

S. A.

(Eds.), Journal of Religion and Health, 64, 3291–3312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-025-02404-5

Davis

E. B.

Chen

Z. J.

Cowden

R. G.

VanderWeele

T. J.

Oberg

Bivins

Newcity

Song

Koenig

H. G.

(in press). An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the association between religion/spirituality and health/well-being. In Webb

J. R.

(Ed.), Handbook of spirituality, health, and well-being: A psychological perspective. Routledge.

10.

Deaton

(2011). Aging, religion, and health. In Wise

D. A.

(Ed.), Explorations in the economics of aging (pp. 237–268). University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226903385.003.0009

11.

Diener

Tay

Myers

D. G.

(2011). The religion paradox: If religion makes people happy, why are so many dropping out? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(6), 1278–1290. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024402

12.

Elliott

Hayward

R. D.

(2009). Religion and life satisfaction worldwide: The role of government regulation. Sociology of Religion, 70(3), 285–310.

13.

Esposito

J. L.

(2006). Terrorism and the rise of political Islam. In Richardson

(Ed.), The roots of terrorism (pp. 145–158). Routledge.

14.

Gervais

W. M.

(2024). Disbelief: The origins of atheism in a religious species. Rowman & Littlefield.

15.

Gervais

W. M.

Najle

M. B.

(2018). How many atheists are there? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(1), 3–10.

16.

Graham

Crown

(2014). Religion and well-being around the world: Social purpose, social time, or social insurance? International Journal of Wellbeing, 4(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v4i1.1

17.

Grim

B. J.

(2014). Growing religion and growing religious restrictions: A global overview. International Area Studies Review, 17(2), 134–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/2233865914537054

18.

Harkness

J. A.

(2003). Questionnaire translation. In Harkness

J. A.

Van

F. J.

Vijver

Mohler

P. P.

(Eds.), Cross-cultural survey methods (Vol. 325; pp. 35–56). John Wiley.

19.

Harkness

J. A.

Braun

Edwards

Johnson

T. P.

Lyberg

Mohler

P. P.

Pennell

Smith

T. W.

(Eds.). (2010). Survey methods in multinational, multiregional, and multicultural contexts. John Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470609927

20.

Highland

Worthington

E. L.

Jr. Davis

D. E.

Sibley

C. G.

Bulbulia

J. A.

(2022). National longitudinal evidence for growth in subjective well-being from spiritual beliefs. Journal of Health Psychology, 27(7), 1738–1752. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211009280

21.

Hoogeveen

Sarafoglou

Aczel

Aditya

Alayan

A. J.

Allen

P. J.

Altay

Alzahawi

Amir

Anthony

F.-V.

Kwame

Appiah, O.

Atkinson

Q. D.

Baimel

Balkaya-Ince

Balsamo

Banker

Bartoš

Becerra

Beffara

. . . Wagenmakers

E.-J.

(2023). A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 13(3), 237–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2070255

22.

Institute for Economics & Peace. (2021). Global Peace Index 2021: Measuring peace in a complex world. https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/GPI-2021-web-1.pdf

23.

Jebb

A. T.

Morrison

Tay

Diener

(2020). Subjective well-being around the world: Trends and predictors across the life span. Psychological Science, 31(3), 293–305. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619898826

24.

Johnson

T. H.

Mason

M. C.

(2008). No sign until the burst of fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier. International Security, 32(4), 41–77. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec.2008.32.4.41

25.

King

Marston

McManus

Brugha

Meltzer

Bebbington

(2013). Religion, spirituality and mental health: Results from a national study of English households. British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(1), 68–73. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.112003

26.

Koenig

H. G.

VanderWeele

T. J.

Peteet

J. R.

(2024). Handbook of religion and health (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

27.

Levin

Bradshaw

Johnson

B. R.

Stark

(2022). Are religious “nones” really not religious? Revisiting Glenn, three decades later. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 18, 7.

28.

Lomas

Ishikawa

Diego-Rosell

Daly

English

Harter

Standridge

Clouet

Diener

Lai

A. Y.

(2022). Balance and harmony in the Gallup World Poll: The development of the Global Wellbeing Initiative module. International Journal of Wellbeing, 12(4), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v12i4.2655

29.

Lun

M.-C.

Bond

M. H.

(2013). Examining the relation of religion and spirituality to subjective well-being across national cultures. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(4), 304–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033641

30.

Mercadante

(2014). Belief without borders: Inside the minds of the spiritual but not religious. Oxford University Press.

31.

Nezlek

J. B.

(2022). Relationships among belief in God, well-being, and social capital in the 2020 European and World Values Surveys: Distinguishing interpersonal and ideological prosociality. Journal of Religion and Health, 61(3), 2569–2588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01411-6

32.

Pargament

K. I.

Mahoney

Exline

J. J.

Jones

J. W.

Shafranske

E. P.

(2013). Envisioning an integrative paradigm for the psychology of religion and spirituality. In Pargament

K. I.

Exline

J. J.

Jones

J. W.

(Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality (Vol 1): Context, theory, and research (pp. 3–19). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14045-001

33.

Pew Research Center. (2012). The global religious landscape: A report on the size and distribution of the world’s major religious groups as of 2010. https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf

34.

Pew Research Center. (2018). The age gap in religion around the world. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/06/ReligiousCommitment-FULL-WEB.pdf

35.

Pirutinsky

Rosmarin

D. H.

Kirkpatrick

L. A.

(2019). Is attachment to God a unique predictor of mental health? Test in a Jewish sample. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 29(3), 161–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2019.1565249

36.

Steensland

Wang

Schmidt

L. C.

(2018). Spirituality: What does it mean and to whom? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 57(3), 450–472. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12534

37.

Streib

Hood

R. W.

Jr. (2016). Understanding “spirituality”—Conceptual considerations. In Streib

Hood, Jr.

R. W.

(Eds.), Semantics and psychology of spirituality: A cross-cultural analysis (pp. 3–17). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21245-6_1.

38.

ten Kate

de Koster

van der Waal

(2017). The effect of religiosity on life satisfaction in a secularized context: Assessing the relevance of believing and belonging. Review of Religious Research, 59(2), 135–155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-016-0282-1

39.

Tillich

(1957). Dynamics of faith. Harper & Row.

40.

Tomlinson

Glenn

E. S.

Paine

D. R.

Sandage

S. J.

(2016). What is the “relational” in relational spirituality? A review of definitions and research directions. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 18(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2015.1066736

41.

Upenieks

Ford-Robertson

(2022). Changes in spiritual but not religious identity and well-being in emerging adulthood in the United States: Pathways to health sameness? Journal of Religion and Health, 61, 4635–4673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01540-6

42.

Valliant

Dever

J. A.

Kreuter

(2018). Practical tools for designing and weighting survey samples (Vol. 1). Springer. (Original work published 2013)

43.

VanderWeele

T. J.

Johnson

B. R.

Bialowolski

P. T.

Bonhag

Bradshaw

Breedlove

Case

Chen

Z. J.

Counted

Cowden

R. G.

de la Rosa

P. A.

Fogleman

Gibson

Grigoropoulou

Gundersen

Jang

S. J.

Johnson

K. A.

Kim

E. S.

. . . Yancey

(2025). The Global Flourishing Study: Study profile and initial results on flourishing. Nature Mental Health, 3, 636–653. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00423-5

44.

Vittengl

J. R.

(2018). A lonely search? Risk for depression when spirituality exceeds religiosity. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 206(5), 386–389. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000815

45.

Yaden

D. B.

Batz-Barbarich

C. L.

Vaziri

Gladstone

J. N.

Pawelski

J. O.

Tay

(2022). A meta-analysis of religion/spirituality and life satisfaction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(8), 4147–4163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00558-7

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.92 MB