The Institute for Family Studies released the findings of a new study on marriage in September 2026. “The Devout Difference: Religion, Marital Quality and Sex Among Americans” examines whether faith leads to happier and more stable marriages.
The study focused on “marital quality, measured by self-reported marital happiness, and perceived marital stability, measured by respondents’ confidence that their marriage will last.” It overwhelmingly found that Christian couples who take their faith seriously are much more likely to remain married and have more joyful and meaningful marriages.
These findings come after decades of decline in the number of religious marriages. For example, Catholic marriages have dropped by 74% since 1970. This decline has accompanied a dramatic drop in Christians’ attendance at weekly Sunday worship.
So what exactly are those who do not practice their faith missing? For one thing, belief that marriage is indissoluble. The report finds that Christians who “most fully embrace the classic beliefs and practices of Protestant and Catholic Christianity—including the conviction that marriage is a lifelong commitment, ‘till death do us part’—enjoy the happiest marriages in America.” Among those who regularly attend church, 79% of Catholics and 74% of Protestants are very happily married, in contrast to the 66% of irreligious spouses who are.
Nearly 75-80% of married couples who regularly attend worship report that they are very happily married.
These happy couples behave differently from their peers. “Churchgoing Catholics and Protestants marry more, have more children, and divorce less than their secular peers,” the report states.
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When couples profess the same faith, act in alignment with that belief, and experience the sense of belonging that goes with religious affiliation, it is hardly surprising that their marriages tend to flourish. The churchgoing Christian is regularly reminded of the need to be sacrificial, compassionate, and loving, virtues that support marriage and family life. Couples who are driven by shared faith are continually encouraged to be more present to each other and more willing to place the needs of their spouse and children before their own.
The study finds that prayer plays a key role in helping marriages to succeed. “Prayer tends to endow family life with a sense of sacredness, encourage constructive reflection on family relationships, and motivate investment in those relationships—all of which redound to the benefit of marriage.”
This occurs because faith flourishes when a person is committed to God and experiences His love. When this happens consistently, it leads to a further willingness to love those God has placed in our lives.
The findings of the report highlight that religiously-observant couples engage in sex more frequently than their secular peers and report more satisfaction with the physical side of their marriages. Faithful couples are closer to one another and remain together at a higher rate, so it is quite reasonable that they tend to express this love more frequently through the marital act of love.
The report was sponsored by FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students), which sends missionaries to college campuses to bring students into a deeper relationship with Christ. IFS researchers included married FOCUS alumni in the study, and the results reaffirmed the general trends found in the rest of the data.
These alumni are far more religiously observant than the general population and are more theologically orthodox than most churchgoing Catholics. Eighty-four percent of these alumni believe that marriage is unbreakable (versus 39% of the general Catholic churchgoing population). The overwhelming majority, 95%, perceive their own marriages to be stable (versus 65% of the general Catholic churchgoing population).
The takeaway from this report for our own lives is clear. In order to foster more stable and happy marriages, we should cling to a life of faith through weekly worship attendance, personal prayer, and sacrificial love.
For couples of faith, marriage is a way to grow closer to God and prepare for heaven.
Religion is a predictor of strong marriages. In a culture that tends to demean religion, this study highlights how effective faith is for the most important institution in human civilization.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.
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