Key Takeaways

The Research: Fewer Christians, But Stronger Christian Marriages

The Institute for Family Studies published “The Devout Difference: Religion, Marital Quality, and Sex Among Americans” on September 25, 2026, authored by Rich Dell’Isola, Brad Wilcox, Grant Bailey, and Jane Lankes Smith. The report draws on multiple national datasets to examine how faith shapes entry into marriage, marital stability, and the character of married life itself.

The findings arrive at a moment when American Christianity is navigating a paradox that the report names directly. The nation’s faith landscape has contracted significantly. Catholic weddings have fallen 74% since 1970. Regular churchgoing has declined across denominations. The share of Americans with no religious affiliation has grown for decades.

And yet, measured by the quality of the marriages they produce, the Christians who remain are doing something the broader culture is struggling to replicate.

Seventy-nine percent of churchgoing Catholics report being very happily married. Among churchgoing Protestants, that figure is 74%. Among non-religious husbands and wives, it is 66%. The gap between those who practice their faith and those who do not is not marginal. It is 8 to 13 percentage points on one of the most important measures of human flourishing available.

The Core Finding: Five Numbers Every Pastor Should Know

The Devout Difference report produces findings that are specific, measurable, and directly applicable to every local church thinking seriously about its ministry.

Churchgoers are 39% more likely to be married. The correlation between regular faith practice and marriage formation is one of the most consistent findings in social science. People who attend church regularly are more likely to marry, and the report confirms this pattern holds in 2026.

Marital happiness runs 8 to 13 points higher among the churchgoing. The 79% and 74% figures for Catholic and Protestant churchgoers respectively, versus 66% for non-religious spouses, represent a significant and consistent advantage in reported marital quality.

The belief that marriage is lifelong matters on its own. Husbands and wives who embrace an ethic of marital permanence, “till death do us part” as genuine conviction rather than ceremonial language, have 1.85 times higher odds of being very happily married. Theology translates directly into relationship outcomes.

Religious couples are not experiencing the sex recession. Sixty-two percent of churchgoing spouses have sex at least once a week, compared to 48% of non-religious spouses. Churchgoers also have 1.42 times higher odds of being sexually satisfied. At a time when sexual frequency and satisfaction are declining broadly across American couples, religious practice is functioning as a protective buffer.

The most orthodox Christians produce the strongest marriages. Among FOCUS alumni, the nation’s largest Catholic collegiate ministry, marriage rates, marital happiness, and confidence in their marriage’s future all exceed those of other Catholic young adults and far exceed those of non-religious peers. Depth of conviction and practice, not merely nominal affiliation, appears to be the operative variable.

The Counterintuitive Angle: Christianity Is Shrinking. Its Marriages Are Getting Relatively Stronger.

Here is the finding that reframes the entire conversation about Christian decline in America.

The standard story of American Christianity involves numerical decline: fewer baptisms, fewer weddings, fewer people in the pew. That story is accurate. But the Devout Difference report adds a dimension to it that is rarely told: the Christians who remain are, by the data, doing better in their marriages than the Americans who have left or never joined.

This is what the authors call the faith-family paradox. As the overall pool of Christian believers has contracted, the committed core that remains has become more concentrated in its faith and, as a result, more robustly served by the institutions of faith and marriage together. Churchgoers marry more. They divorce less. They report higher marital happiness. They maintain more active sexual intimacy with their spouses. And their children are more likely to grow up in the kind of stable, faith-formed household that the Passing the Torch research shows is the strongest predictor of adult religious retention.

The implication is both sobering and hopeful. Sobering because the overall cultural influence of Christianity on marriage has weakened considerably. Hopeful because the local church, for those who remain fully engaged in it, is demonstrably producing something the culture cannot replicate.

This is not an argument for smugness. Forty-four percent of churchgoing Protestant spouses and a similarly high share of Catholic spouses are not very happily married, and the report notes real challenges including pornography use among Catholic husbands and added strain among large Catholic families. But the direction of the data is clear: depth of faith practice, not nominal affiliation, is what produces the marriage advantage. And that points directly to the importance of the local church’s investment in genuine formation, not just Sunday attendance.

What This Means for Your Church

At Communio, the Devout Difference report is one of the most important pieces of research published this year for pastors thinking seriously about marriage ministry.

It tells them several things simultaneously. It tells them that the church’s investment in marriage is not merely a pastoral kindness or a social program. It is producing measurably better outcomes in the most important relationship most of their congregants will ever have. It tells them that depth of conviction matters, that nominal Christianity does not produce the same marriage outcomes as genuine, practiced faith. And it tells them that the most orthodox, most engaged sectors of the Christian community are showing the strongest family results.

That is an argument for depth, not breadth. For formation that produces genuine conviction about the permanence of marriage. For a church culture that takes the theology of marriage seriously enough to invest in it practically, not just preach it theoretically.

Think about the couples in your congregation. The ones who are not in the very happy marriage category. Not in crisis, but not flourishing. Whose faith is real but whose marriage has drifted into the kind of quiet, functional coexistence that the culture calls normal. The Devout Difference report says these couples are not stuck. Depth of faith practice and genuine engagement with the permanence of marriage are associated with better outcomes, and both are things a local church can directly cultivate.

Communio helps churches build the ministry culture and practical tools to move couples in exactly that direction, from nominal participation toward the kind of deep, conviction-rooted, community-supported marriage that the data shows is both possible and measurably different from what the broader culture is producing.

Take the Next Step

Communio partners with churches to build marriage ministry that deepens formation, strengthens conviction, and produces the kind of measurably happy marriages the Devout Difference report documents among the most faithful Christians in America.

► Read the full IFS article and download the Devout Difference report → ifstudies.org

► Explore Communio’s resources for churches → communio.org

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Devout Difference report and what does it find? The Devout Difference: Religion, Marital Quality, and Sex Among Americans is a new report from the Institute for Family Studies by Rich Dell’Isola, Brad Wilcox, Grant Bailey, and Jane Lankes Smith, published September 25, 2026. It finds that married men and women who most fully embrace the classic beliefs and practices of Protestant and Catholic Christianity enjoy the happiest marriages in America, with 79% of churchgoing Catholics and 74% of churchgoing Protestants reporting very happy marriages, compared to 66% of non-religious spouses.

What is the faith-family paradox? The faith-family paradox describes the finding that while American Christianity’s cultural hold on marriage has shrunk significantly since the 1970s, the believers who remain are more likely to enjoy strong, stable, and happy families than their secular peers. Catholic weddings have fallen 74% since 1970, yet churchgoing Catholics and Protestants today marry more, have more children, divorce less, and report higher marital happiness than non-religious Americans.

Why do religious couples report higher sexual satisfaction? The report finds that 62% of churchgoing spouses have sex at least once a week compared to 48% of non-religious spouses, and that churchgoers have 1.42 times higher odds of being sexually satisfied. The authors suggest that shared faith, shared values, the conviction of marital permanence, and the communal norms and accountability that religious community provides all contribute to a relational context that supports rather than erodes sexual intimacy over time.

Does the level of orthodoxy within Christianity matter? Yes, significantly. The report finds that among FOCUS alumni, representing some of the most committed and orthodox young Catholic adults, marriage rates, marital happiness, and confidence in the marriage’s future all exceed those of other Catholic young adults and far exceed those of non-religious peers. Depth of conviction and practice appears to be the operative variable, not nominal religious affiliation.

What challenges does the report identify within Christian marriage? The report is honest about areas of concern, including that a large minority of churchgoing Catholic husbands view pornography monthly or more, that Catholic parents of large families report added strain, and that only a minority of Catholics embrace the kind of orthodox faith most conducive to strong marriages. The report treats these not as reasons for despair but as indicators of where churches need to invest in formation and practical support.

Credit: This post draws on “Faithful Christians Have the Happiest Marriages in America” by Rich Dell’Isola, Brad Wilcox, Grant Bailey, and Jane Lankes Smith, published by the Institute for Family Studies on September 25, 2026. Read the full article and download the Devout Difference report here.