Lifelong Membership Predicts Observance

Pew’s 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study finds lifelong Latter‑day Saints are measurably more religious (attendance, belief, practice) than both converts and former members. Roughly three quarters of current members were raised in the church and about one in four are converts, with lifelong members showing higher communal ties and religious practice in the survey subsample. — Differences between lifelong members and converts alter how we interpret a religion’s political footprint, assimilation patterns, and the durability of its civic institutions.