A new Gallup Poll reports the self-assessed mental health of Americans is at the lowest point in decades. Only 34% of those taking part in the survey rate their emotional health as “excellent.” That’s a drop of 9 percent from 2019.
But one segment of people showed a noteworthy increase in mental health reporting.
Those who attend religious services weekly come in with 46% stating their mental health is excellent. That’s a jump of 4% from the year before.
Those who seldom or never attend church experienced a sizeable drop from 42% to 29%.
It should be noted that weekly church attendance often continues during the pandemic in the form of online church services.
The Gallup breakdown:
“Although the majority of U.S. adults continue to rate their mental health as excellent (34%) or good (42%), and far fewer say it is only fair (18%) or poor (5%), the latest excellent ratings are eight points lower than Gallup has measured in any prior year.
The latest weakening in positive ratings, from a Nov. 5-19 poll, are undoubtedly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to profoundly disrupt people's lives, but may also reflect views of the election and the state of race relations, both of which were on Americans' minds this year.”