In short
Scripture engagement is associated with higher wellbeing. In the American Bible Society's State of the Bible USA 2025, the Scripture Engaged (about 20% of US adults) averaged 7.9 on Harvard's Human Flourishing Index versus 6.8 for the Bible Disengaged, and weekly Bible readers reported more hope (18.6 vs 16.8) and less stress (8.0 vs 9.6) than non-readers. The pattern echoes the Global Flourishing Study (Nature Mental Health, 2025; 200,000+ people, 22 countries) and Harvard cohort research. These are associations, not proof that reading Scripture causes wellbeing, and effects are strongest among people who are already religious.
- Bible engagement tracks with higher flourishing, hope, and comfort, and with lower stress and loneliness.
- The link is an association, not causation: already-religious people may simply engage Scripture more.
- The pattern is broad: it holds across 22 countries and Harvard mortality cohorts, though those measure service attendance, not Bible reading.
- US Scripture engagement fluctuates year to year (20% in 2025 to 17% in 2026), while the wellbeing gap stays stable.
Scripture engagement is associated with higher wellbeing. In the American Bible Society's State of the Bible USA 2025, the Scripture Engaged (about 20% of US adults) averaged 7.9 on Harvard's Human Flourishing Index, versus 6.8 for the Bible Disengaged, and weekly Bible readers reported higher hope (18.6 vs 16.8) and lower stress (8.0 vs 9.6) than non-readers. These are associations, not proof that reading Scripture causes wellbeing, and effects are strongest among people who are already religious. The pattern echoes the Global Flourishing Study (Nature Mental Health, 2025; 200,000+ people, 22 countries) and peer-reviewed Harvard research, where regular religious service attendance tracks with higher flourishing and lower mortality risk.
flourishing score, Scripture Engaged vs Bible Disengaged
flourishing gap, more-than-weekly vs never attenders (22 countries)
high loneliness, Scripture Engaged vs Bible Disengaged
Key findings at a glance
| Metric | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flourishing, Scripture Engaged vs Bible Disengaged | 7.9 vs 6.8 | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Hope, past-week Bible readers vs non-readers | 18.6 vs 16.8 | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| High loneliness, Scripture Engaged vs Bible Disengaged | 11% vs 22% | 2024 | American Bible Society |
| Flourishing gap, more-than-weekly vs never attenders | 0.81 points | 2025 | Global Flourishing Study |
| US adults classified as Scripture Engaged | 20% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Read Scripture outside services at least weekly | 22% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
Scripture engagement and human flourishing
The American Bible Society pairs its Scripture Engagement Scale with Harvard's six-domain Human Flourishing Index. Higher engagement tracks with higher flourishing, and the score rises with reading frequency. This is an association: already-committed believers may simply score higher, so the gap does not show that reading Scripture causes flourishing.
Scripture Engaged US adults averaged 7.9 on Harvard's Human Flourishing Index versus 6.8 for the Bible Disengaged (2025), according to the American Bible Society. This is an association, and "Scripture Engaged" is a proprietary category (a Scripture Engagement Scale score of 100 or higher).
Human Flourishing Index scores rose with Bible reading frequency, from 7.1 (three or four times a year) to 7.2 (weekly) to 7.5 (several times a week) to 7.9 (daily), according to Lifeway Research's analysis of American Bible Society State of the Bible data (2025). The meaningful gap appears at several times a week and above.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Bible readers vs those who never read (flourishing) | 7.9 vs 6.8 | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Gen Z and Millennials actively engaging Scripture (flourishing) | 8.1 | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Bible study group participants (flourishing) | 7.9 | 2025 | Lifeway Research |
| Domains in Harvard's Human Flourishing Index | 6 domains | 2025 | American Bible Society |
Hope, stress, and loneliness
Weekly Bible readers and the Scripture Engaged report more hope and comfort and less stress and loneliness than non-readers. These are correlations measured on survey scales, not clinical outcomes, and some of the benefit likely runs through community rather than Scripture alone.
US adults who read the Bible in the past week reported higher hope scores (18.6) than those who did not (16.8) in 2025, according to the American Bible Society. Hope is measured on a survey scale; this is an association.
US adults who read the Bible in the past week reported lower stress (8.0) than those who did not (9.6) in 2025, according to the American Bible Society. Stress is self-reported, not diagnostic; this is an association.
Scripture Engaged US adults were about half as likely to report high loneliness as the Bible Disengaged (11% versus 22%), according to the American Bible Society State of the Bible USA 2024. Some of the benefit likely runs through community rather than Scripture alone.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Find great comfort in their faith, Scripture Engaged vs Bible Disengaged | 83% vs 11% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Aware God cares about their suffering, daily vs monthly readers | 94% vs 53% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Prayed within the past week, Scripture Engaged vs Movable Middle | 98% vs 87% | 2025 | American Bible Society |
Build a daily prayer habit
Pray Focus helps you pray every day by gently locking distracting apps during your prayer time.
How much Scripture engagement reaches people
The American Bible Society uses proprietary categories. A "Bible User" uses Scripture at least three times a year outside of worship, a low-frequency bar that is not the same as weekly reading. "Scripture Engaged" is a deeper tier: a Scripture Engagement Scale score of 100 or higher, built from how often and how centrally a person uses the Bible. Engagement fluctuates year to year even as the wellbeing gap stays stable.
About 20% of US adults were classified as Scripture Engaged in 2025, according to Lifeway Research's analysis of American Bible Society State of the Bible USA 2025. "Scripture Engaged" means a Scripture Engagement Scale score of 100 or higher, not simply weekly reading.
The share of US adults classified as Bible Users rose from 38% to 41% between 2024 and 2025, about 10 million more adults, according to the American Bible Society. "Bible User" means Scripture use at least three times a year outside worship, not weekly reading.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scripture Engaged (Bible Engaged) US adults, about 44 million | 17% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| Bible User threshold (Scripture use outside worship) | at least 3x/year | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| Scripture Engagement Scale, Engaged threshold | score 100 or higher | 2025 | Lifeway Research |
| Read Scripture outside services at least weekly (61% seldom or never) | 22% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Bible-curious "Movable Middle", up about 9 million since 2024 | 28% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| State of the Bible USA 2025 interviews (NORC) | n=2,656 | 2025 | American Bible Society |
| State of the Bible USA 2026 interviews (NORC) | n=2,649 | 2026 | American Bible Society |
The global and peer-reviewed picture
The Global Flourishing Study and Harvard's VanderWeele cohort research place the Bible-engagement finding inside a broader, peer-reviewed association between religious practice and wellbeing. These studies measure religious service attendance rather than Bible reading specifically, and every finding is an association from observational data, not proof of cause.
Across 22 countries, people who attend religious services more than weekly scored about 0.81 points higher in composite flourishing (on a 0 to 10 scale) than those who never attend, according to the Global Flourishing Study (Nature Mental Health, Wave 1). This is an association and measures attendance, not Bible reading.
The Global Flourishing Study surveyed more than 200,000 people across 22 countries and published its Wave 1 flourishing findings on April 30, 2025, according to Harvard's Human Flourishing Program and Nature Mental Health.
Women who attended religious services more than once per week had a 33% lower risk of death over 16 years of follow-up than women who never attended, according to a 2016 study in JAMA Internal Medicine led by Harvard's Tyler VanderWeele. This is an observational association measuring attendance, not Scripture reading.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower deaths-of-despair risk, weekly attenders (women / men) | 68% / 33% | 2020 | JAMA Psychiatry (Harvard T.H. Chan) |
| More likely to report higher happiness, raised attending weekly | 18% more likely | 2018 | American Journal of Epidemiology |
| More likely to report higher happiness, daily childhood prayer or meditation | 16% more likely | 2018 | American Journal of Epidemiology |
| US adults affirming the Bible's personal relevance vs "secular West" average | 51% vs 37% | 2025 | American Bible Society (Patmos / Gallup) |
A caution on cause. Every source here reports an association, never causation. Bible engagement, church attendance, and active faith all correlate with higher flourishing, but observational studies cannot rule out that already-flourishing or already-religious people simply engage Scripture more. Researchers control for many variables, yet causation is not established.
Digital Scripture engagement
Most Bible engagement now runs through phones and apps, the same surface where a prayer app lives. These app figures are first-party metrics from the publisher, so cumulative installs and opens are not the same as unique active Bible readers.
The YouVersion Bible App reached 1 billion cumulative installs in November 2025, with the app opened about 1 billion times every 39 days, according to YouVersion (Life.Church). This is a first-party app metric: cumulative installs and opens are not the same as unique active readers.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouVersion Bible App languages (installs up 12%, daily use up 18% YoY) | 2,300+ languages | 2025 | YouVersion (Life.Church) |
| US Bible Users who access the Bible digitally at least sometimes (62% of digital users use Bible apps) | two-thirds | 2025 | American Bible Society |
How we compiled these statistics
Every figure on this page is traced to a primary source and dated to the year the data was collected. Scripture engagement, flourishing, hope, stress, comfort, and reach figures come from the American Bible Society's State of the Bible USA 2025 and 2026 reports (conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago), with several flourishing breakdowns from Lifeway Research's analysis of that data. The cross-national flourishing figure comes from the Global Flourishing Study published in Nature Mental Health, and the mortality, deaths-of-despair, and happiness figures come from Harvard's VanderWeele cohort studies in JAMA and the American Journal of Epidemiology. The weekly-reading benchmark comes from Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study. We frame every wellbeing figure as association rather than cause, note that effects are strongest among the already-religious, label the ABS "Bible User" and "Scripture Engaged" definitions wherever used, and mark app figures as first-party metrics. We exclude the retracted UK Quiet Revival data and intercessory-prayer trials.
Want to build a Scripture habit of your own? Pray Focus pairs a distraction-blocking prayer time with a free library of prayers by topic, including peace, hope, and anxiety collections, plus Bible verses by topic, so reading and prayer fit into daily life.
Learn to pray.Make it a daily habit.
One email at a time, at your pace
Join our free email course and learn simple, time-tested ways to pray, with one small thing to try each time, so prayer slowly becomes part of your day.
- 8 short lessons: the Daily Examen, Lectio Divina, ACTS and more
- One tiny exercise each time, so praying becomes a habit
- Gentle and practical, never preachy. Free, forever.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible USA 2025 (Chapter 3, Human Flourishing)
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible USA 2025 (Chapter 4, Well-Being and Self-Care)
- American Bible Society, State of the Bible USA 2026 (Chapter 1)
- Nature Mental Health, The Global Flourishing Study (Wave 1, 2025)
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, VanderWeele Research Group / Human Flourishing Program
- JAMA Psychiatry, Religious Service Attendance and Deaths of Despair (2020)
- Pew Research Center, Religious Landscape Study 2023-24
- YouVersion / Life.Church (first-party app metrics)
Related articles
Bible Statistics
Bible Reading Statistics: How Often Americans Read Scripture
How many Americans read the Bible, how often, and how they view it. Sourced Bible reading statistics from Pew Research Center, the American Bible Society, and Gallup.
Bible Statistics
Bible Reading Among Gen Z: US Statistics (2025)
Weekly Bible reading among US Gen Z climbed to 49% in 2025, up from 30% a year earlier. Here is what Barna, the American Bible Society, and Pew actually found, and why the surge should be read with care.
Bible Statistics
How People Read the Bible: Print, App, and Audio (2025)
The Bible app is now the default reading surface for millions, but print has not disappeared. Here is what YouVersion, the American Bible Society, Pew, and United Bible Societies actually report about how people read Scripture in 2025.