Religion and Volunteering
People who worship regularly give more of their time, and much of it goes to causes outside their congregations.
See how each study defines volunteering and who it compares.
Three anchor findings
Explore all
1. Volunteering worldwide
Volunteered in the past month.
2.5× as likely
2. Serving this week
Volunteered in the past seven days.
1.6× as likely
3. Christians and the unaffiliated
Volunteered for any organization this year.
1.3× as likely
The case in brief
Time follows participation.
In surveys across the United States and 22 other countries, people who attend religious services often are consistently more likely to volunteer. The gap is largest when studies compare regular attenders and smaller when they compare religious identity alone, and it shows up in service to nonreligious causes as well as to congregations.
Jump straight to the evidenceTesting the claim
Is it more than church duty?
The case is strongest when the extra volunteering reaches causes beyond the congregation, holds in other countries, and grows as the same people become more involved.
Service reaches past the congregation.
Weekly attenders were more likely than secular Americans to volunteer for nonreligious causes (60% vs. 39%), including school and youth programs and help for the poor or elderly. Practicing Christians were more than twice as likely as non-practicing Christians to volunteer against global poverty (24% vs. 10%).
Comparisons by religious identity alone show smaller gaps. In Pew’s 2023 survey, 17% of affiliated and 14% of unaffiliated adults were in a nonreligious service group, and Gallup found Protestants and atheists about equally likely to volunteer for nonreligious charities (49% vs. 50%). The wide difference appears when studies compare how often people actually attend: 60% of weekly attenders volunteered for nonreligious causes, compared with 39% of secular Americans.
The gap holds in 19 of 22 countries.
Exceptions: Nigeria, Poland, and Turkey.
In the Global Flourishing Study, adults who attend services more than once a week were more than twice as likely as those who never attend to have volunteered in the past month, and the pattern held in 19 of 22 countries. In a related analysis, Christians were the most likely group to volunteer in 13 of the 21 countries where they could be compared.
The exceptions are instructive. In Nigeria, nearly everyone attends services. In Poland and Turkey, more-educated adults tend to be both less religious and more likely to volunteer, and people with no religion were the most likely group to volunteer.
It starts early and grows with involvement.
Attendance at age 12, 22 countries, after other childhood factors.
Adults who attended services weekly at age 12 were 61% more likely to volunteer than those who never attended, and the likelihood rose step by step with childhood attendance. A U.S. study that followed more than 5,000 young people for 8 to 14 years found the same direction. In two British panels that tracked the same adults over time, volunteering rose as individuals began attending more often.
Identity alone shows a smaller gap. In Pew’s 2023–24 survey, 45% of Christians and 35% of unaffiliated adults volunteered, and atheists (44%) and agnostics (42%) volunteered at about the Christian rate. The larger differences appear when studies compare how often people actually attend.
Nakamura et al., 2025 · Chen & VanderWeele, 2018 · Aksoy & Wiertz, 2024 · Pew, 2025
Why no single number?
Different time windows, same direction.
These rows count volunteering over a week, a month, or a year, and they compare different groups: regular attenders, the highly religious, Christians, or everyone with a religious identity. A past-week rate cannot be averaged with a past-year rate, so we do not combine this page’s 13 rows. What lines up is the direction: every attendance-based comparison here points the same way, and the British panels show the change within the same people.
All studies
Explore the full evidence
Compare the results at a glance. Open any finding for its methods and full summary.
Showing 13 of 13 findings
Volunteer rates 8 findings
Volunteered in the past month
22 countries2023 data
Volunteered in the past week
U.S. adults2014 survey
Volunteered in the past year
U.S. adults2023–24 survey
Volunteering by monthly attendance
U.S. adults2023 survey
Volunteered in the past year
U.S. adults2023 survey
Volunteered time to a cause
U.S. adults2017 survey
Highest volunteering rate
22 countries2023 data
Volunteering as attendance rises
UK adults1991–2021
Beyond church 3 findings
Volunteered for nonreligious causes
U.S. adults2000 survey
Global poverty volunteering
U.S. Christians2017 survey
Involved in a nonreligious service group
U.S. adults2023 survey
Upbringing 2 findings
Volunteering after a religious upbringing
22 countries2023 data
Volunteering in young adulthood
U.S. youth cohort1999–2013
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