Harvard / Baylor Global Flourishing Study — Flagship Paper

Abstract

Longitudinal panel of 200,000+ participants across 22 countries, nationally representative, run with Gallup and the Center for Open Science. Measures six domains: health, happiness, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security.

Findings for Latter-day Saints

• Greater religious service attendance is associated with greater flourishing worldwide.
• Age, marital status, and attendance show the strongest associations with wellbeing.
• Results hold across diverse religious traditions and national contexts.

Limitations in methodology

Self-reported flourishing measures; associations between attendance and flourishing are correlational, not causal.

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Cite this study

VanderWeele, T. J., Case, B., Chen, Y. (2025). Harvard / Baylor Global Flourishing Study — Flagship Paper. Nature Mental Health. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-025-00423-5

Tyler J. VanderWeele, et al.. "Harvard / Baylor Global Flourishing Study — Flagship Paper." Nature Mental Health, 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-025-00423-5.

@article{harvard_global_flourishing_study_2025,
  title = {Harvard / Baylor Global Flourishing Study — Flagship Paper},
  author = {Tyler J. VanderWeele and Brendan Case and Ying Chen},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {Nature Mental Health},
  url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-025-00423-5},
}