Researchers at BYU's Wheatley Institute — Jenet Jacob Erickson, Justin Dyer, and Barbara Morgan Gardner — analyzed Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, a nationally representative survey of approximately 37,000 Americans. They filtered the data by gender and religious affiliation.
LDS women reported the highest rate of being "very happy" of any religious group in America at 35%. Only 5% of married LDS women described themselves as "not too happy" — the lowest of any group measured.
Additional findings from the same dataset: 77% of LDS mothers experience deep spiritual peace and well-being on a weekly basis — higher than every other religious group except Muslim mothers at 75%. Among single LDS women, 68% report weekly spiritual peace, and only 6% say they seldom or never experience it.
LDS women and LDS mothers also had the highest percentage rating their family lives as "excellent" at 27% and 30% respectively.
The underlying data is from Pew's nationally representative survey. The gender-specific analysis was conducted by the Wheatley Institute fellows and published in April 2025.
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