Who are the happiest people in America?

People sometimes try to draw hard distinctions between reality and morality. For example, you’ve likely heard some variation of the assertion “Science is objective, and Christian morality is subjective.” The person who believes such might go on to argue that moral claims are unfalsifiable opinions and no fit source for public policy. But, as economists and sociologists are increasingly discovering, morality claims—e.g., “Marriage is good”—really do seem to operate much like physical laws. Their validity is often observable, and sometimes they can be scientifically investigated.

Perhaps this is why a recent graph shared by University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox caught widespread attention. The graph is a map of the United States, with each state shaded according to the percentage of 15- to 17-year-olds living in intact families. Parts of the West and Midwest showed the greatest number of intact families, while the “Bible Belt” South showed some of the least. Utah, which has long held a Mormon majority, showed far and away the greatest number of intact family units at nearly 70%. As it turns out, Utah isn’t only known for having the greatest number of intact families in the United States but also for having the best economy of any state and for being the happiest state in the country, beating out Hawaii of all places.

What makes Utah unique?

Wilcox, whose National Marriage Project seeks to research and increase marital stability, interviewed Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to find out.

“I absolutely 100% believe that our economic success is tied directly to the institution of family,” the Republican governor said. “When you look at what makes people the happiest, it’s not the things we usually think of. In fact, we all assume that money and fame are things that make this happen. But over and over and over again, the science shows that the happiest people on Earth are married and have kids, that those things actually make you happier.”

Wilcox’s research in his new book, Get Married (WORLD’s 2024 Book of the Year in the general nonfiction category), corroborates Cox’s belief. But our culture continues to act as if marriage and children are costly deterrents to happiness, wealth, and success.

Perhaps this was the inevitable outworking of some of feminism’s baser tenets. Only 60 years ago, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique as a manifesto against the stay-at-home mother’s domestic life, which included the rearing of children. Now, feminists are denouncing the institution of marriage itself.

“I’m not arguing that you personally should get a divorce. I mean, not necessarily,” Lyz Lenz writes in her new manifesto, This American Ex-Wife, seeking to further liberate women from domestic life and unhappiness by arguing against the institution of marriage itself.

But Wilcox’s research upends Lenz’s and the broader secular culture’s supposition that marriage and children are making us unhappy. In fact, as Wilcox shows in Get Married, it is precisely those who are married with children who report to be the most happy people in America.

While Lenz’s book cracked The New York Times’ list of bestsellers, it is a hopeful sign that not everyone is convinced. Increasingly, young Republicans are leaning into family life. “They want to get married young, have kids, and have economic success,” according to American Principles Project’s Jon Schweppe, where 15 years ago, they might have focused only on the latter. They are increasingly interested in pro-family policies that support marriage and children. But while such policies are a welcome addition to a culture that is increasingly hostile to marriage and children, it’s unlikely they’ll notably increase the marriage or fertility rates in America. For that to happen, attitudes toward marriage and children will need to change. And religious communities are key to that social shift, as Utah has shown.

Christians have long valued marriage and family, and we will become increasingly countercultural for participating in these God-ordained institutions. We should continue to encourage marriage and children and be careful not to adopt ungodly attitudes toward them from the culture around us. Their goodness is observable, even scientifically so, and, eventually, reality will become the most persuasive argument in favor of Christianity and faithful Christian living.