Can A Lack Of Religion Be A Recipe For Loneliness?
(ANALYSIS) In 2023, the Surgeon General of the United States issued a report with the title, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” Dr. Vivek H. Murthy wrote in the introduction that “Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling — it harms both individual and societal health.”
There’s a nice graph on page 13 of that report that is worth emphasizing here. Between 2003 and 2020:
— Social isolation increased 24 hours a month for the average person.
— Social engagement with friends dropped by 20 hours.
— Companionship dropped by 14 hours per month.
That’s a trend that is worrying, of course. And that's what I wanted to explore in this post. I wanted to really try and sort through what factors are leading to less socialization. Let me start by highlighting two of my favorite bugaboos: education and religious attendance.
My data is the Household Pulse Survey, which is fielded by the United States Census Bureau. This data was collected about six months ago, so this is about as good as it gets.
This is the relationship between the highest level of education obtained and self-reported annual religious attendance.
I like this graph because it helps us navigate the overall relationship between these two variables. It’s fair to say that there’s a weak-ish connection between the two.
Among folks who earned no more than a high school diploma, the share who never attend church is about 58%, while those who attend once a month is much lower at 22%.
To me, there’s a clear line of demarcation in the graph between those who attended college but didn’t earn a degree and those who obtained an associates degree.
To read the rest of Ryan Burge’s column, please visit his Substack page.
Ryan Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, a pastor in the American Baptist Church and the co-founder and frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a more general audience. His research focuses on the intersection of religiosity and political behavior, especially in the U.S. Follow him on X at @ryanburge.