Religion and Giving

Different surveys measure generosity as money given, direct help, or volunteer time, and all three show the same overall pattern. Pew’s volunteer data show the role of participation most clearly: 41% of religiously affiliated adults who attend services at least monthly volunteered, compared with 17% of both less-frequent attenders and unaffiliated adults. In that comparison, participation matters more than religious identity alone.

Brooks, 2003 · Pew, 2016 · Pew, 2024

In Brooks’s analysis, weekly attenders gave $1,388 more per year and were 26 percentage points more likely to volunteer after accounting for income, education, age, race, politics, and other measured factors. Pew also reports that the difference in help for poor people remains after income, age, and education are considered, but it does not publish an adjusted version of the featured 52% versus 31% figure.

Brooks, adjusted models · Pew, adjusted direction

Weekly attenders were more likely than secular Americans to give to nonreligious causes (71% vs. 61%) and to volunteer for them (60% vs. 39%). Putnam found a similar gap in volunteering to help poor or elderly people (40% vs. 15%), and it held after accounting for demographic and ideological differences.

Studies that compare religious identity rather than participation are mixed, ranging from an adjusted 11-point advantage to near parity on secular measures. However, they ask a different question: whether identity matters, not whether people actively practice their faith. Across this research, the consistent difference follows active participation, not identity alone.

Brooks, 2003 · Putnam, 2010 · Lee & King, 2026 · Cragun et al., 2026 · Pew, 2024 · Gallup, 2017