¹⁸ Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

According to a survey conducted by the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Survey Center on American Life, Americans who believe in God and/or are married have the greatest sense of purpose and meaning in their life, the Washington Stand reports.

The survey conducted in 2023 found that 56% of those who classify themselves as Evangelical Christians stated that over the past 12 months, they ‘always’ or ‘often’ felt their life had meaning.

In contrast, only 42% of the nones, those who have no religious affiliation, stated that they felt that their life ‘always’ or ‘often’ had meaning over the past year.

“Overall, religious Americans tend to believe their life is meaningful more often than do those who are not religious,” AEI stated in its reports. “Americans who have never married, are not religious, and have lower levels of formal education feel their lives have meaning less often than other Americans do.”

The lack of meaning is particularly strong among Gen Z. In an interview with Tony Perkins in the spring of 2023, pollster George Barna stated, that “75% of millennials ‘say, ‘I don’t know why I should get out of bed in the morning.’”

Having a Sense of Purpose May Help you Live Longer

Having a sense of purpose or meaning for your life, may actually result in you living longer, according to a study by Dr. Koichiro Shipa, a professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health, Medical News Today (MNT) reports.

Shipa analyzed the results of 13,159 adults over the age of 50 who had participated in a health and retirement study conducted by the National Institute of Aging and the Social Security Administration.

An analysis of the data eight years later found that nearly 25% had died.

However, it also revealed that those with the highest sense of purpose lowered their risk of dying by over 15% compared to those who had the lowest sense of purpose.

This was particularly true for women.

“The researchers found that women lowered their risk of all-cause mortality by 34%, compared to men, whose risk was reduced by 20%,” wrote Robby Berman in his article for MNT.