The American Bible Society (ABS) has released its 15th annual State of the Bible report, revealing that reading the Bible yields better self-care outcomes than activities such as exercising, meditating, or spending time with friends.
The findings are based on a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, utilizing their AmeriSpeak panel, which included 2,656 online interviews from January 2-21 with American adults across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Researchers analyzed how common self-care activities like exercising, spending time with friends, volunteering, meditating, and praying influence stress, anxiety, loneliness, and hope, comparing these effects to those from Scripture reading, according to Baptist Press.
The study measured stress on a scale of 0–40, with lower scores indicating less stress; anxiety on a scale of 0–20; loneliness on a scale of 5–20; and hope on a scale of 3–24, with higher scores indicating greater hope.
According to the survey, those who read the Bible weekly or more experienced stress levels of 8, compared to 9.6 among non-readers. Anxiety among readers was 4.3, versus 4.8 among non-readers.
For loneliness, weekly Bible readers scored 11.1, compared to 11.8 for non-readers, while hope scores for weekly readers were 18.6, versus 16.8 for non-readers.
Participants also noted that Scripture reading provides comfort during difficult times. An impressive 94 percent of those surveyed agree that reading the Bible daily helps them know God cares deeply about their suffering, compared to 53 percent of those who read it only monthly.
While other self-care activities like volunteering also showed benefits, fewer outcomes surpassed those achieved through Scripture reading. Volunteering resulted in better stress scores of 7.4, anxiety of 3.9, loneliness of 10.7, and hope of 19.0.
“The relatively few (17 percent) who volunteer in their communities put up the most positive numbers,” researchers wrote. “They are the least stressed, least anxious, least lonely and most hopeful of everyone represented on these charts.”
The researchers advocate for Bible reading as an effective self-care practice, emphasizing that “As the anchoring element of soul care, the Bible opens us up to a transformative interaction — a relationship –with God.”
The report’s other chapters for 2025, released monthly through December, will explore themes such as trust in institutions and people, church engagement, and attitudes toward friends and neighbors.
