LONDON — Eating fruits and vegetables, exercise and going to church. What do all these things have in common?

They are all good for your health. That’s according to a recent report by the U.K.-based National Churches Trust.

In fact, the report said that church attendance — and the many services these houses of worship provide — saves the National Health Service approximately £8.4 billion ($1.1 billion) each year due to their provision of food banks, drug/alcohol addiction support, mental-health counseling and youth support.  

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According to “The House of Good: Health” report, U.K. churches act as “wellbeing workhorses” that are “multiplying health and happiness” across Britain and “enriching lives and preventing illness and suffering before it has a chance to take root.”

While church attendance is down across Britain, it goes on to state that churches are “the U.K.’s most underappreciated preventative care providers” — giving people access to services for “the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in society.”

Throughout the U.K., churches are providing valuable extra services in aid of the National Health Service, Britain’s government-funded program. These houses of worship promote positive physical and mental health, encouraging people to thrive, thus preventing medical conditions that might otherwise result in the need for medical treatment, as well as providing a location for people to seek help. 

Over the past four years, The National Churches Trust has been actively researching exactly what role church buildings play within society. As research progressed, the group said, it became evident that the role of churches was wider than expected due to its effect on well being, community and youth groups. Churches frequently now act as bases for food banks because the locations are easily accessible and central to local communities in need.

Eddie Tulasiewicz, head of Policy and Public Affairs at the National Churches Trust, said of the findings: “In deprived communities, churches are crucial because people struggle to keep them open. They have less money but need the help churches can provide.”

Doing the math

Recognizing this, the National Churches Trust commissioned a group of economists to quantify financially the exact nature of the churches’ impact on society.  To do this, they drew on a number of government and university surveys. They also used the National Churches Trust survey of 2020 indicating that 29% of church buildings were either providing or hosting mental-health counseling, 10.4% were involved in drug or alcohol support services, 42% organizing youth groups or similar activities and 58% hosting food banks.

The resultant calculations were based on the same methodology used by the U.K. Treasury and Office of National Statistics. These are known as “WELLBYs” — or “Wellbeing-adjusted Life Year — and are based on observable changes in people’s responses. Each WELLBY represents a one-point improvement on the scale for a period of a single year.

Focusing on the four key areas of mental health, drug/alcohol support, youth and community services, food banks, the researchers converted WELLBYs (four million every year by churches) to the standard Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) metric used in health economics. 

The results were staggering. The Treasury and Office of National Statistics recommended a value of £13,000 ($16,300) per increased state aid for “workhouses” that relieve pressure on the NHS, while the Department of Health estimates it costs the service £15,000 ($19,000) to deliver one QALY.

The conversion puts the total cost relief achieved by churches at £8.7 billion (rounded down to £8.4 billion given the closure of some churches since 2021). This is the equivalent of 3.7% of the £225 billion ($283 billion) spent on U.K. health care during 2022 — a conservative valuation given that churches provide such a wide range of other support, including warm spaces & lunch clubs alleviating loneliness and cultural activities.

‘The God sector’

Tulasiewicz said this “can be described as ‘The God Sector,’”

“It is worth billions not in terms of donations, but in terms of the impact religious buildings can provide not just Christian churches but other faiths too.  Our research provides a footprint which can be followed elsewhere,” he added.  

Tulasiewicz said the reaction to the research “has been very positive” and that lawmakers “refer to our figures … in parliamentary proceedings.”

Without churches, the NHS would undoubtedly be facing much higher costs. Simply taking into account the cost of the essential support services that would be required to fund the activities provided by churches would require an additional 4% of UK health spending — the same cost of employing 230,000 nurses.    

“It is not a matter of evangelism, but a matter of helping others,” Tulasiewicz said. “It reflects the way in which churches are present everywhere and are an essential part of communities and should be valued for that presence. This should be taken into account when helping churches re funding since the U.K. church buildings are dangerously underfunded with many falling into disrepair and facing closure. Without urgent support, we risk losing this vital shock absorber for the NHS, and a vital safety net for the most vulnerable people in society.”

Angela Youngman is a freelance journalist who has written for a wide range of national and international publications.