Membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints involves a lot of community engagement. Most adult members have a role in their congregation (referred to as a “calling”) and are assigned specific people or families to serve and support. Many Latter-day Saints also choose to serve as a missionary either as a young adult or in their later years.
These strong communal connections set Latter-day Saints apart from U.S. adults as a whole.
“Tradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.”
| % | Group | |
|---|---|---|
| All Latter-day Saints | 72 | 1 |
| Bachelor’s degree or more | 91 | 2 |
| Less education | 61 | 2 |
| Mountain region | 80 | 3 |
| Elsewhere in the U.S. | 62 | 3 |
| Ages 18-49 | 78 | 4 |
| 50+ | 63 | 4 |
“Tradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.”
For instance, Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) are much more likely than other Americans to say they have volunteered in the past 12 months, according to Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS). While 41% of all U.S. adults say they spent time in the previous year volunteering, 72% of Latter-day Saints say this. In no other religious group analyzed do a majority say they volunteered during the past 12 months.21
While majorities of Latter-day Saints in all major demographic subgroups say they have volunteered in the past 12 months, church members with bachelor’s degrees are much more likely than those with less education to have volunteered.
(Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are often called Mormons by other people, and for years the church used that term to refer to its members or related institutions, such as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. However, the church stopped using “Mormon” in 2018 and discourages others from using the term to refer to the church or its followers. In this analysis, we primarily use the church’s full name and refer to members of the faith as “Latter-day Saints.” We include limited references to the term “Mormon” in parentheses for readers who are unfamiliar with the full name of the church or the term “Latter-day Saints.”)22
“Tradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.”
| % | Group | |
|---|---|---|
| All U.S. adults | 34 | 1 |
| Hindu | 51 | 2 |
| Jewish | 51 | 2 |
| Latter-day Saint (Mormon) | 48 | 2 |
| Mainline Protestant | 43 | 2 |
| Buddhist | 39 | 2 |
| Catholic | 35 | 2 |
| Religiously unaffiliated | 35 | 2 |
| Evangelical Protestant | 30 | 2 |
| Orthodox Christian | 29 | 2 |
| Muslim | 28 | 2 |
| Historically Black Protestant | 19 | 2 |
“Tradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.”
Latter-day Saints also exhibit high levels of social trust.
In the 2023-24 RLS, we asked respondents whether, generally speaking, they think “most people can be trusted” or “you can’t be too careful in dealing with people.”
About half of Latter-day Saints take the former position – making them one of the most trusting religious groups in the country.
Within the church, there is a particularly large divide on this topic by education: Six-in-ten Latter-day Saints with a bachelor’s degree say most people can be trusted, compared with about four-in-ten church members without a college diploma.
Latter-day Saints also are more likely than many other Americans to say they feel a deep sense of connection with humanity at least once a week.
These findings about Latter-day Saints’ civic engagement and communal connections are drawn from our 2023-24 RLS. This analysis is part of a larger project exploring Latter-day Saints’ demographic makeup, their religious beliefs and practices, and political and social views, as well as how these characteristics have changed over time.
