Pew’s Surprising Portrait of Latter-day Saints

Last week, Pew Research Center released a new report about Latter-day Saints. With the lead-up to General Conference, I am only now getting the opportunity to dig into the data. It’s a wonderful report about the health of the Church. 

While we should always be careful to avoid saying “all is well in Zion,” the newest report shows a church whose members are becoming increasingly diverse, living happy lives, increasing their educational attainment, and contributing to their communities.

I wanted to highlight six of the big takeaways I had from the report, supplemented by some of the other recent news around the health of the Church. 

Latter-day Saints are Distinguished by Their Service

Nearly three in four Latter-day Saints surveyed (72%) said that they volunteered in the previous year. This compares to 41% of Americans overall. 

In fact, among every religious group that Pew surveyed, Latter-day Saints were the only one in which the majority of members volunteered in the previous year. 

In my own analysis of Pew’s public data, 42% of former members reported volunteering in the previous year, in line with national averages. This seems to suggest that there may be something about the practice of the religion itself that is inspiring these volunteerism rates.

This comes as little surprise, as the Church recently reported reaching 90,000 currently serving full-time missionaries, an all-time high. The willingness to make substantial volunteer commitments appears to me to be something that is inculcated in our religious beliefs and practices.

Faith is Associated with Happiness and Gratitude

The survey distinguished those who were raised as Latter-day Saints and continue to affiliate with the Church from those who were raised as Latter-day Saints but no longer do. This led to some interesting observations. 

Among the American adult population at large, 28% report being very happy. That number rises to 37% among Latter-day Saints. Among those who have left the faith, meanwhile, 21% report being very happy. This means that, among those raised as Latter-day Saints, those who stay in the faith are 76% more likely to report being very happy than those who leave. 

This pattern is especially pronounced among women. Thirty-eight percent of women who were raised in the Church and still identify as Latter-day Saints are very happy, compared with 27.5% of the total U.S. adult population and 17.1% of those raised in the Church who have since left.

This is also true at the bottom of the rankings. Fourteen percent of U.S. women say they’re not at all happy, compared with only 9.4% of women in the Church, and 27% of women who were raised Latter-day Saint but have since left the Church. 

A similar pattern shows up for gratitude. Seventy-eight percent of Latter-day Saints report having a strong sense of gratitude or thankfulness at least weekly compared to 62% of U.S. adults and 55% of former Latter-day Saints. 

As Latter-day Saints, we understand that the Lord’s blessings come in His own time and way, but there does seem to be a real association between keeping the commandments and recognizing the blessings that come as a result.

Family Life is Very Good

The public perception of Latter-day Saints is that they tend to have strong families, and the Pew data continues to back up this impression. Thirty-one percent of Latter-day Saints describe their family lives as excellent, and only 1% say they are poor. This compares with 23% of the U.S. population who rate their family life as excellent and 3% as poor. And among those raised as Latter-day Saints who have since left, 19% rate their family life as excellent, and 6% rate it as poor. 

As with the happiness numbers, Latter-day Saint women fare much better in comparison. But even Latter-day Saint women rate family life as very good at lower rates than Latter-day Saint men. 

And religion seems to be a core component of what bonds these marriages. Thirty-seven percent of married Latter-day Saints discuss religion with their spouse every day, more than twice the rate among married U.S. adults overall. 

It seems to me that The Church of Jesus Christ’s emphasis on eternal relationships gives a larger purpose to what can be the sometimes dull work of marriage and parenting, which helps Latter-day Saints find greater satisfaction in those activities. Regardless of the reasoning behind the data, it is encouraging to find that the family life of so many Latter-day Saints is going well.  

Education is Associated with Religious Conviction

Among Latter-day Saints, higher levels of educational attainment are associated with greater levels of religious conviction. Eighty-five percent of Latter-day Saints with a bachelor’s degree say that religion is very important to them, compared with 65% of those without a bachelor’s degree. Among those who stay in the Church, 41% of lifelong Latter-day Saint adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 28% of former Latter-day Saints. 

Women have seen particularly large increases in their levels of educational attainment. In 2007, 25% of Latter-day Saint women had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 40% in the most recent survey. 

We also see this desire for education reflected in the Church’s seminary and institute enrollment figures. In March 2026, Church seminary and institute enrollment surpassed 1 million students for the first time. 

It is largely a good sign that higher education among Latter-day Saints is associated with stronger religious commitment. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is not reserved for those who attain higher education. And clearly there is something that is not quite connecting as consistently or as effectively with those who have not pursued higher education. It is certainly a trend to keep an eye on. 

Faith Leaves Room for Trust and Diversity

Latter-day Saints stand out in the recent survey data for their trust in others. Forty-eight percent say most people can be trusted, compared with 34% of Americans. That places Latter-day Saints among the most trusting religious groups surveyed. 

Latter-day Saints also believe that diversity strengthens American society. While 71% of U.S. adults agree that racial diversity strengthens the United States and 52% say the same about religious diversity, 76% and 65% of Latter-day Saints, respectively, believe the same. These attitudes are also found among those who were raised in the Church but have since left. 

For members of a minority faith, it is natural that there would be a connection between cherishing our own religion and appreciating a country where others can do the same, but that often comes with an insular attitude. But the high rates of generalized trust among Latter-day Saints complicate that stereotype. 

The American Church is Becoming More Diverse

Worldwide, The Church of Jesus Christ is becoming much more diverse. But Pew’s survey included only Americans. Within that group, we see that those who were born in the faith are less likely to remain in it than they were twenty years ago, while at the same time, a racially and ethnically diverse group of converts is also joining the ranks of the Church. Since the 2007 survey, the share of Hispanic Latter-day Saints in the U.S. has increased from 6% to 12%, and the share of Black Latter-day Saints has tripled from 2% to 6%. About 26% of Latter-day Saints were raised in another faith or with no faith. 

The drop in Latter-day Saint retention rates is part of a broader secularization across the U.S. A recent analysis of Pew data by BYU researchers found that 42% of U.S. adults who were raised in the Church still identify as members and attend at least monthly, the highest rate of any religious group in the survey. So while retention has dropped, it has remained exceptionally high in the context of the broader religious climate. 

I am no social scientist. I’m a writer who read a report. I’m sure there are lots of complications surrounding questions of causation. And certainly there are real concerns here to examine and areas in which we can improve, especially in helping to reverse broader secularization patterns and engaging those without a bachelor’s degree.

But Pew’s methodology tends to be among the best in the business. And the takeaways, at least for a layperson, seem to be that for those who commit themselves to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the plan is working. Latter-day Saints are happy, trusting, community-oriented, and have good family lives.