The 2023-2024 PRLS had the rare combination of questions about 1) current religion, 2) religion in which raised, and 3) different measures of flourishing. This allows us to see whether, for example, former Latter-day Saints (at least those raised LDS who no longer identify as such) are happier than current Latter-day Saints, or current Latter-day Saints are happier than never Latter-day Saints, etc. There are 3 flourishing measures:
“Generally, how happy are you with your life these days?” [Very happy, pretty happy, not too happy]
“Would you say your health in general is excellent, very good, good, fair or poor”
“Would you say your family life is excellent, very good, good, fair or poor?”
I dichotomized each of these measures to report on the number who indicated that they were the highest level, so “very happy,” “excellent health,” and “excellent family life.”
The PRLS is large enough that we have 147 converts, 313 former members, 414 lifelong members, and 35,382 never members.
So in terms of rank ordering lifelong Latter-day Saints and converts are the happiest (although women are at about the same level as never-members), followed by never Latter-day Saints, and then former Latter-day Saints. This is the same pattern for having an “excellent” family life, but for health converts are at about the same level as former Latter-day Saints.
Specifically, while about 30-40% of lifelong Latter-day Saints and converts are “very happy,” (male converts are an outlier), for never Latter-day Saints it’s in the high 20s, and for former Latter-day Saints it’s in the mid-teens to low-20s.
For excellent family life converts and lifelong members report 25-35% , with never Latter-day Saints in the low 20s, and former members in the high teens.
15-20% of lifelong members report excellent health versus about 12-13% for never members and about 10% for converts and former members.
Wonk Start
Of course, some of these groups are rather small (which is perhaps one reason why there is a big convert gender gap–statistical bumpiness), so there is the question of statistical significance. I ran a series of weighted regressions to test for difference using the lifelong members as the omitted reference group.
- Ex-members and never Latter-day Saints are significantly less happy than lifelong members, for converts it’s a statistical tie with lifelong members.
- For self-reported health there are no statistically significant differences between lifelong members and any group. However, for former members it barely misses the cutoff for significance (p=.078).
- Ex-members and never Latter-day Saints report significantly poorer family lives than lifelong members, for converts it’s a statistical tie with lifelong members.
See code here.
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