In short
When people pray, they most often pray for the people they love. Gratitude and thanksgiving top US prayer content at 62%, followed closely by family and community needs (61%), guidance in a crisis (49%), and health and wellness (47%), according to Barna Group, while Lifeway Research found 82% of Americans who pray focus on friends and family. Prayer stays widespread (44% of US adults pray daily, per Pew) and most feel heard: 48% of US adults say God has answered a prayer in a miraculous way, a self-reported figure that rises to about 90% of practicing Christians.
- People mostly pray for others: 82% focus on friends and family.
- Gratitude leads prayer content at 62%, ahead of family needs and health.
- Prayer stays widespread, with 44% of US adults praying daily.
- Answered-prayer figures are self-reported experience, not verified outcomes.
When people pray, they most often pray for the people they love. In the most detailed US survey of prayer content, gratitude and thanksgiving top the list (62%), followed closely by family and community needs (61%), guidance in crises (49%), and health and wellness (47%), according to Barna Group. A separate Lifeway Research survey found 82% of Americans who pray focus on friends and family, more than any other subject. Prayer itself remains widespread: 44% of US adults pray daily, per Pew Research Center. And most feel heard. 48% of US adults say God has answered a prayer in a miraculous way, rising to about 90% of practicing Christians, according to the American Bible Society. Those last figures are self-reported experience, not verified outcomes.
Key findings at a glance
| Metric | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gratitude and thanksgiving (top prayer theme) | 62% | 2017 | Barna Group |
| Focus prayers on friends and family | 82% | 2014 | Lifeway Research |
| God has answered a prayer miraculously (self-reported) | 48% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| US adults who pray daily | 44% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| God hears prayers and can intervene | 42% | 2022 | Gallup |
| Highest daily prayer rate (Indonesia, of 36 countries) | 95% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
The most common prayer themes
The headline breakdown of what praying adults actually bring to God: gratitude, family, guidance, health, forgiveness, safety, and peace, ranked by how many mention each. The numbers come from Barna's 2017 'Silent and Solo' survey of 1,015 US adults, the most detailed US study of prayer content, though not a 2025-26 release.
Gratitude and thanksgiving is the most common prayer theme among US adults who pray, cited by 62% in 2017, according to Barna Group.
61% of praying US adults say they pray about the needs of their family and community, according to Barna Group.
49% of praying US adults say they pray for personal guidance in a crisis, according to Barna Group.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health and wellness | 47% | 2017 | Barna Group |
| Confession and forgiveness | 43% | 2017 | Barna Group |
| Safety in daily tasks and travel | 41% | 2017 | Barna Group |
| A sense of peace | 37% | 2017 | Barna Group |
| Specific prayer requests shared by others | 34% | 2017 | Barna Group |
Praying for other people
Prayer is overwhelmingly relational. This section shows how often people pray for friends and family, their own problems, disaster victims, and even those who have wronged them, from a Lifeway Research survey of 1,137 US adults in August 2014.
82% of Americans who pray say they typically focus their prayers on friends and family, the single most common subject of prayer, according to Lifeway Research.
74% of Americans who pray say they pray about their own problems, according to Lifeway Research.
41% of Americans who pray say they pray for people who have mistreated them, according to Lifeway Research.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good things happening in their life | 54% | 2014 | Lifeway Research |
| People affected by natural disasters | 38% | 2014 | Lifeway Research |
| Their future prosperity | 36% | 2014 | Lifeway Research |
Do people believe prayers are answered?
Answered-prayer belief, miraculous experiences, and views on whether God hears and intervenes, framed as self-reported experience rather than verified outcomes. The miracle figures come from American Bible Society and CBN News research released in 2026; the survey measures what respondents say they experienced and does not attempt to verify individual claims. 'Practicing Christian' is a definition based on faith importance and worship attendance.
48% of US adults say God has answered one of their prayers in a miraculous way, according to the American Bible Society.
About 90% of practicing Christians say they have experienced a miraculous answer to prayer, according to the American Bible Society.
83% of Americans feel that at least some of their prayers are answered, according to Lifeway Research.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evangelical Protestants reporting a miraculous answer | 75% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| Catholics reporting a miraculous answer | 57% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| Witnessed or experienced a divine healing (self-reported) | 35% | 2026 | American Bible Society |
| Say all of their prayers are answered | 25% | 2014 | Lifeway Research |
| Say God hears prayers and can intervene | 42% | 2022 | Gallup |
| Say God hears prayers but cannot intervene | 28% | 2022 | Gallup |
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How often Americans pray
The prayer-frequency baseline: daily prayer rates, grace before meals, and the gender gap, from Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study.
44% of US adults say they pray daily, according to Pew Research Center.
50% of US women pray daily compared with 37% of US men, according to Pew Research Center.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Often or always say grace before meals | 33% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
How people pray
Prayer is mostly private and quiet. Among praying US adults, the large majority pray alone rather than in groups, and silently rather than aloud, according to Barna Group.
94% of praying US adults say they most often pray alone, according to Barna Group.
82% of praying US adults say they most often pray silently, according to Barna Group.
Who prays for what
Prayer content differs by age and gender, from Boomers leaning into thanksgiving and health to women covering every category more than men, according to Barna Group.
71% of Baby Boomers pray with thanksgiving compared with 53% of Millennials, according to Barna Group.
68% of the oldest US adults pray for health and wellness compared with 38% of Millennials, according to Barna Group.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's gratitude prayers (women exceed men in every category) | 69% | 2017 | Barna Group |
Prayer around the world
How US prayer compares globally, with the highest-praying nations from Pew Research Center's study of 36 countries. Compared with a 44% US daily prayer rate, several nations pray far more often.
Indonesia has the highest daily prayer rate among 36 countries surveyed, at 95%, according to Pew Research Center.
| Statistic | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria, adults who pray daily | 84% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Kenya, adults who pray daily | 84% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
| Brazil, adults who pray daily | 76% | 2023-24 | Pew Research Center |
Prayer content and well-being
Beyond what people pray for, some research looks at how prayer content relates to well-being. The finding below is an association, not causation: it does not show that prayer heals or cures, and effects are generally observed among people who are already religious.
Prayers of thanksgiving are a significant predictor of subjective well-being, self-esteem, and optimism, according to peer-reviewed research on prayer types (Whittington and Scher, 2010).
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. Prayer-content, how-people-pray, and demographic breakdowns come from Barna Group's 2017 'Silent and Solo' survey (1,015 US adults). Subjects-of-prayer and answered-prayer figures come from Lifeway Research (1,137 US adults, 2014). Miracle and divine-healing figures come from American Bible Society and CBN News research released in 2026, and we frame them as self-reported experience, not verified outcomes. Prayer-frequency and cross-national figures come from Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study and its 36-country study, and belief-about-God figures come from Gallup (2022). The prayer-type well-being finding is peer-reviewed (Whittington and Scher, 2010) and framed as association, not causation. We exclude retracted UK data and off-brand novelty prayer items.
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Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Barna Group, Silent and Solo: How Americans Pray (2017)
- Lifeway Research, Americans Pray for Friends and Family (2014)
- American Bible Society and CBN News, research on Americans' beliefs about miracles and prayer (2026)
- Pew Research Center, Prayer and other religious practices (Religious Landscape Study 2023-24)
- Pew Research Center, How spiritual and religious practices vary globally (36 countries)
- Pew Research Center, Spirituality and religion: US comparison to other countries
- Gallup, Belief in God in US Dips to New Low (2022)
- Whittington and Scher, Prayer and Subjective Well-Being, International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (2010)
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