Published September 12, 2026. Last updated September 12, 2026.
Ask someone directly whether their life has a purpose, and most people say yes without much hesitation, even people who would never call themselves purposeful in conversation. Purpose and meaning are studied constructs, measured by name in surveys spanning over a hundred countries and tracked against mortality in cohorts followed for decades. This page traces every figure below to the study that produced it, states who was asked and when, and links the document itself.
Key takeaways
- An average of 91% of adults across 132 nations answered yes to “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?” in the 2007 Gallup World Poll, covering more than 140,000 respondents (Heintzelman & King, 2014).
- Reported meaning in life ran higher in poorer nations than wealthier ones, even though life satisfaction rose sharply with national wealth, in the same 2007 Gallup World Poll of 132 nations (Oishi & Diener, 2014).
- 16.9% of a national probability sample of 3,032 U.S. adults aged 25 to 74 met the criteria for languishing in 1994-1995 fieldwork, against 65.1% at moderate mental health and 18.0% flourishing (Keyes, 2005).
- A meta-analysis of 25 samples and 488,765 participants followed for up to 32 years found higher purpose in life associated with a 24% lower risk of death (hazard ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.70-0.83), a benefit that shrank to a hazard ratio of 0.91 after adjusting for depression, published 2026 (Sutin et al., 2026).
- Only 18% of U.S. working adults described their current job as having a purpose they personally believe in, among 4,475 respondents surveyed August 18 to 25, 2025 (Gallup, 2025).
- Between 40.4% and 77.1% of 2,247 people aged 18 to 29 across eight countries said yes to a direct question about currently experiencing a crisis episode, in fieldwork collected October 2023 to October 2024 (Robinson et al., 2025).
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines emotional well-being as including “a sense of meaning, purpose, and supportive relationships” on its current well-being concepts page, which carries no statistics on purpose or meaning anywhere on it (CDC, n.d.).
Cite this page
APA: Eduard, S. (2026, September 12). Purpose and meaning in life statistics: Every verified number, dated and sourced. StumbleTowardTheLight. https://stumbletowardthelight.com/purpose-in-life-statistics/
MLA: Eduard, Sebastian. “Purpose and Meaning in Life Statistics: Every Verified Number, Dated and Sourced.” StumbleTowardTheLight, 12 Sept. 2026, stumbletowardthelight.com/purpose-in-life-statistics/.
The source table
| # | Statistic | Data collected | Source type | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 91% average affirmative response to “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?” across 132 nations, over 140,000 respondents | 2007 | primary study (via Gallup World Poll) | Heintzelman & King, 2014 |
| 2 | 90% or higher affirmed the same question in Cuba, Kosovo, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and the United States | 2007 | primary study | Heintzelman & King, 2014 |
| 3 | National wealth tracked closely with life satisfaction across 132 nations; reported meaning in life ran a different, flatter curve | 2007 | primary study | Oishi & Diener, 2014 |
| 4 | Residents of poorer nations reported greater meaning in life than residents of wealthier nations, a gap partly explained by religiosity | 2007 | primary study | Oishi & Diener, 2014 |
| 5 | Family named more often than any other source of meaning in 14 of 17 advanced economies surveyed, among roughly 19,000 adults | 2021 | primary study | Silver et al., 2021 |
| 6 | 69% of U.S. adults named family, unprompted, as what makes life meaningful | September 2017 | primary study | Pew Research Center, 2018 |
| 7 | Roughly a third (33%) named career or job, unprompted | September 2017 | primary study | Pew Research Center, 2018 |
| 8 | Roughly 24% named money or financial security, unprompted | September 2017 | primary study | Pew Research Center, 2018 |
| 9 | 20% named religious faith as their single most important source; 36% of the full sample rated faith “a great deal” of meaning when asked directly | September to December 2017 | primary study | Pew Research Center, 2018 |
| 10 | 16.9% of 3,032 U.S. adults aged 25 to 74 met the criteria for languishing | 1994 to 1995 | primary study | Keyes, 2005 |
| 11 | 65.1% of the same sample met the criteria for moderate mental health | 1994 to 1995 | primary study | Keyes, 2005 |
| 12 | 18.0% of the same sample met the criteria for flourishing | 1994 to 1995 | primary study | Keyes, 2005 |
| 13 | Languishing is defined as low hedonic well-being plus low functioning on 6 of 11 dimensions, one of which is a sense of direction and purpose | criteria published 2005 | derived (diagnostic criteria) | Keyes, 2005 |
| 14 | 202,898 adults across 22 countries rated “I understand my purpose in life” on a 0-to-10 scale; results are published as country means, not percentages | principally 2023 | primary study | VanderWeele et al., 2025 |
| 15 | Between 40.4% (Greece) and 77.1% (Indonesia) of 2,247 people aged 18 to 29 said yes to currently experiencing a crisis episode | October 2023 to October 2024 | primary study | Robinson et al., 2025 |
| 16 | “Feeling lost, helpless or hopeless” was coded in 6.1% to 44.7% of written crisis descriptions, depending on country, among those who said yes | October 2023 to October 2024 | primary study | Robinson et al., 2025 |
| 17 | Purpose in life predicted lower mortality risk across a 14-year follow-up of MIDUS adults aged 20 to 75, with 569 deaths recorded, regardless of age or retirement status | baseline data year not stated; 14-year follow-up published 2014 | primary study | Hill & Turiano, 2014 |
| 18 | Meta-analysis of 25 samples, 488,765 participants, up to 32 years of follow-up, 48,928 deaths: purpose associated with hazard ratio 0.76 (95% CI 0.70-0.83) for all-cause mortality | studies span decades; meta-analysis published 2026 | derived (individual-participant meta-analysis) | Sutin et al., 2026 |
| 19 | Same meta-analysis: hazard ratio attenuated to 0.85 (95% CI 0.82-0.89) after adjusting for behavioral and clinical mortality risk factors | published 2026 | derived (adjusted model, same data) | Sutin et al., 2026 |
| 20 | Same meta-analysis: hazard ratio 0.91 (95% CI 0.88-0.94) after adjusting for depression | published 2026 | derived (adjusted model, same data) | Sutin et al., 2026 |
| 21 | Earlier meta-analysis of 10 prospective studies, 136,265 participants: adjusted relative risk 0.83 (95% CI 0.75-0.91) for all-cause mortality | literature searched through June 2015; published 2016 | derived (meta-analysis) | Cohen, Bavishi, & Rozanski, 2016 |
| 22 | Same meta-analysis: adjusted relative risk 0.83 (95% CI 0.75-0.92) for cardiovascular events | published 2016 | derived (meta-analysis) | Cohen, Bavishi, & Rozanski, 2016 |
| 23 | Among 6,985 U.S. adults over 50, lowest-purpose group had 2.43 times the mortality risk of highest-purpose group (95% CI 1.57-3.75); 776 deaths recorded | purpose measured 2006; mortality tracked 2006 to 2010 | primary study | Alimujiang et al., 2019 |
| 24 | 8,756 internet respondents across four life stages: presence of meaning was higher at later life stages | published 2009 | primary study | Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009 |
| 25 | Same sample: active searching for meaning was higher at earlier life stages | published 2009 | primary study | Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009 |
| 26 | Among 397 U.S. adults aged 18 to 78 (average age 35), meaning tracked giving to others and connecting past, present, and future, distinct from happiness | before August 2013 publication | primary study | Baumeister et al., 2013 |
| 27 | 18% of 4,475 U.S. working adults described their current job as having a purpose they personally believe in | August 18-25, 2025 | vendor survey (Gallup Panel) | Gallup, 2025 |
| 28 | 30% of the same working adults said their ideal job would have that quality | August 18-25, 2025 | vendor survey | Gallup, 2025 |
| 29 | 45% of the same working adults said they work mainly to collect a paycheck and benefits | August 18-25, 2025 | vendor survey | Gallup, 2025 |
| 30 | 50% of employees with strong work purpose were engaged, against 9% of employees with low work purpose and 31% of the full workforce | August 18-25, 2025 | vendor survey | Gallup, 2025 |
| 31 | More than 80% of roughly 4,000 college graduates, hiring managers, and parents said deriving purpose from work was important | 2019 | vendor survey | Bates College & Gallup, 2019 |
| 32 | Fewer than 50% of the same graduates said they actually found that purpose in their current job | 2019 | vendor survey | Bates College & Gallup, 2019 |
| 33 | CDC’s current well-being concepts page defines emotional well-being to include “a sense of meaning, purpose, and supportive relationships,” with no statistics on the page | page reviewed 2026; no data year given | federal survey (agency page, no data) | CDC, n.d. |
| 34 | Purpose in life is confirmed as one of six distinct, separately measurable dimensions of psychological well-being, replicated in a large national sample | studies published 1989 and 1995 | primary study | Ryff, 1989; Ryff & Keyes, 1995 |
Purpose in life statistics: what percentage of people say their life has meaning?
An average of 91% of adults said yes when asked directly, across a 2007 Gallup World Poll of more than 140,000 people in 132 nations, the largest cross-national figure available for this exact question (Heintzelman & King, 2014). The affirmative rate ran 90% or higher in countries as different as Cuba, Malawi, Sri Lanka, and the United States. Life satisfaction climbed with national income across that same 132-nation dataset, while reported meaning ran higher in poorer nations (Oishi & Diener, 2014). What actually drives meaning in life is explored in what makes life meaningful, and the fuller architecture of building a life around that direction is the subject of the site’s purpose hub essay.
How many people are languishing or feel they have no purpose?
16.9% of a national probability sample of 3,032 U.S. adults aged 25 to 74 met the criteria for languishing in 1994-1995 fieldwork, against 65.1% at moderate mental health and 18.0% flourishing (Keyes, 2005). Languishing is a specific diagnostic category built from low hedonic well-being plus low scores on at least 6 of 11 positive-functioning dimensions, one of which is holding goals and a sense of direction, so no clean percentage exists for “people with no purpose” as its own count. This fieldwork is three decades old and remains the newest nationally representative U.S. estimate with published criteria attached. The what percentage of people feel lost page traces the adjacent identity and crisis-episode data in full.
What percentage of people find their work meaningful?
Only 18% of 4,475 U.S. working adults described their current job as having a purpose they personally believe in, surveyed August 18 to 25, 2025, with 30% saying their ideal job would carry that quality and 45% saying they work mainly for a paycheck and benefits (Gallup, 2025). The gap shows up earlier too: more than 80% of roughly 4,000 college graduates surveyed in 2019 called work purpose important, and fewer than half said they actually found it in their current job (Bates College & Gallup, 2019). What a calling actually looks like when work does supply that sense is covered in what is a calling.
How common is an existential crisis?
No representative survey has measured “existential crisis” as its own defined condition, but the closest proxy is high: between 40.4% and 77.1% of 2,247 people aged 18 to 29 across eight countries said yes to currently experiencing a crisis episode, in fieldwork collected October 2023 to October 2024 (Robinson et al., 2025). The largest adjacent measurement, the Global Flourishing Study, rates purpose and worthwhileness on a 0-to-10 scale across 202,898 adults in 22 countries, fieldwork run principally during 2023, publishing country averages with no cutoff separating a crisis state from an ordinary one (VanderWeele et al., 2025). A closer proxy comes from quarter-life crisis research: between 40.4% and 77.1% of 2,247 people aged 18 to 29 across eight countries said yes to currently experiencing a crisis episode, fieldwork collected October 2023 to October 2024, with feelings coded as “lost, helpless or hopeless” in 6.1% to 44.7% of the written descriptions from those who said yes (Robinson et al., 2025). That question asked about a difficult, unstable period generally; calling it existential crisis is an inference laid on top of the data.
Why is life purpose important, and does it help you live longer?
Purpose in life predicts longevity: a 2026 meta-analysis of 488,765 participants followed for up to 32 years found higher purpose associated with a 24% lower risk of death (hazard ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.70-0.83), independent of how happy a person feels (Sutin et al., 2026). Among adults aged 20 to 75 in the Midlife in the United States study, purpose in life predicted a lower risk of death across 14 years of follow-up, holding regardless of age or retirement status (Hill & Turiano, 2014). A 2026 meta-analysis pooling 25 samples and 488,765 participants followed for up to 32 years found higher purpose associated with a 24% lower risk of death (hazard ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.70-0.83), the newest and largest estimate available, a benefit that shrank to a hazard ratio of 0.91 after accounting for depression (Sutin et al., 2026). An earlier meta-analysis of 136,265 participants found a similar adjusted relative risk of 0.83 for both mortality and cardiovascular events (Cohen, Bavishi, & Rozanski, 2016), and a study of adults over 50 found the lowest-purpose group carried 2.43 times the mortality risk of the highest-purpose group (Alimujiang et al., 2019). Every figure here describes a statistical association, replicated across decades, and none guarantees an outcome for any single person. Purpose also functions as a structural feature of daily life, organizing goals the way Carol Ryff’s foundational well-being research first described it, a picture explored fully in living a purposeful life (Ryff, 1989; McKnight & Kashdan, 2009).
Is it normal to question the meaning of life?
Yes, and measurably so: between 40.4% and 77.1% of young adults across eight countries described an active crisis episode in fieldwork collected 2023 to 2024 (Robinson et al., 2025). Research on meaning treats searching for it as its own common, well-studied experience. Among 8,756 people surveyed across four life stages, active searching for meaning ran higher among younger adults, while the felt presence of meaning ran higher among older adults (Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009). Michael Steger’s original measurement work built presence and search as two separate scales, since a person can hold high amounts of both at once (Steger et al., 2006). The practical side of that search is covered in how to find meaning in life.
Why do people seek meaning in life?
People most often locate meaning through relationships: family topped the list of where meaning comes from in 14 of 17 advanced economies surveyed in 2021 (Silver et al., 2021), and meaning also tracks giving to others, connecting your past to your present and future, and mattering to something beyond yourself. Among 397 U.S. adults surveyed before 2013, meaning correlated with those patterns, a separate system from happiness, which correlated with getting what you wanted in the moment (Baumeister et al., 2013). Later research named three parts, coherence, purpose, and significance, with significance, the sense of mattering, carrying the most weight in people’s actual meaning judgments (Martela & Steger, 2016; Costin & Vignoles, 2020). Family topped the list of where that mattering comes from in 14 of 17 advanced economies surveyed in 2021 (Silver et al., 2021).
Why do people lose their sense of purpose?
Purpose lapses when life interrupts a person’s contact with a working direction, career endings and disappearing roles among the common triggers; the closest measured marker of that lapsed state is languishing, which described 16.9% of a national U.S. sample in 1994-1995 fieldwork, a group defined partly by a low sense of direction (Keyes, 2005). Longitudinal well-being research finds that the content of a person’s purpose shifts across life stages while the presence of some purpose stays protective, a trait people rebuild after it lapses (Ryff & Keyes, 1995). George Vaillant’s decades-long tracking of the Harvard Grant Study found that income and career achievement predicted little about which men described their later decades as meaningful; the men who did kept building relationships across the intervening years (Vaillant, 2012). That distinction, between purpose built on a fading feeling and purpose built on a chosen direction, is covered in passion vs purpose.
Is there a meaning to life, according to research?
Psychological research answers a narrower version of that question: whether people report feeling that their own life has meaning, and the overwhelming majority say yes, 91% on average across a 2007 Gallup World Poll of 132 nations (Heintzelman & King, 2014). Viktor Frankl’s clinical account, built from observing meaning-making under extreme conditions, located three sources available to anyone: work, love, and the stance a person takes toward suffering they cannot avoid (Frankl, 1946). That framework holds independent of religious belief, a distinction covered directly in meaning without religion.
Why do some people think life is meaningless?
Sustained, unrelieved meaninglessness sits closer to a measured well-being deficit than a philosophical position: the closest such estimate is languishing, which described 16.9% of a national U.S. sample in 1994-1995 fieldwork as low in both feeling and functioning well, including a sense of direction (Keyes, 2005). What matters clinically is duration and whether the feeling comes paired with a loss of pleasure in ordinary things, the pattern examined in why am I never satisfied. Research consistently finds meaning to be buildable, through the same short list of ingredients: relationships, contribution, and a direction someone keeps choosing, ground covered practically in what to do when life feels meaningless.
The CDC names purpose and meaning as well-being. It publishes no data on either.
The CDC’s well-being concepts page names purpose and meaning as part of emotional well-being but publishes no statistics on either, confirmed on this page’s most recent check in 2026 (CDC, n.d.). The second claim to check: that same page carries no statistics, survey data, or measurement instrument for purpose or meaning anywhere on it. A federal health agency has named purpose and meaning as components of the thing it tracks, and it tracks neither directly, which is why this page’s numbers come from Gallup, Pew, and peer-reviewed cohort studies.
Methodology
Statistics here were selected by checking data/citation-ledger.md‘s existing verified sources on purpose, meaning, languishing, and well-being against the studies they came from, reusing citations already confirmed for this site’s purpose-and-meaning essays. New primary sources, the 2026 mortality meta-analysis, the 2016 Cohen meta-analysis, the Alimujiang cohort study, the 2025 Gallup workplace survey, the 2019 Bates-Gallup study, the 2018 Pew survey, and the CDC well-being page, were located through targeted searches for the mining report’s vacancy themes and confirmed against the publishing journal or agency page. Every figure states the population and the year data were collected, distinguished from publication year where the two differ. Sources last verified 2026-09-12.
Cite this page
APA: Eduard, S. (2026, September 12). Purpose and meaning in life statistics: Every verified number, dated and sourced. StumbleTowardTheLight. https://stumbletowardthelight.com/purpose-in-life-statistics/
MLA: Eduard, Sebastian. “Purpose and Meaning in Life Statistics: Every Verified Number, Dated and Sourced.” StumbleTowardTheLight, 12 Sept. 2026, stumbletowardthelight.com/purpose-in-life-statistics/.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of people say they have a purpose in life?
An average of 91% answered yes to a direct question about it, across 132 nations surveyed in the 2007 Gallup World Poll (Heintzelman & King, 2014).
Is it normal to have no purpose in life?
The feeling is common, and the closest measured category, languishing, describes 16.9% of a national U.S. sample surveyed in 1994-1995, a group defined by low functioning across several dimensions, including a sense of direction (Keyes, 2005).
Does purpose actually affect health outcomes?
Yes. A 2026 meta-analysis of nearly half a million participants found a 24% lower mortality risk associated with higher purpose, a benefit that held, though reduced, after accounting for health behaviors and depression (Sutin et al., 2026).
How many people find their work meaningful?
18% of U.S. working adults described their current job as carrying a purpose they personally believe in, surveyed in August 2025 (Gallup, 2025).
Is there a statistic for how many people have an existential crisis?
No. No representative survey has measured it as a named condition. The closest adjacent figure comes from quarter-life crisis research, where 40.4% to 77.1% of young adults across eight countries said yes to currently experiencing a crisis episode (Robinson et al., 2025).
Does the CDC track purpose and meaning as public health data?
It names both as part of its own definition of well-being, and it publishes no statistics on either anywhere on that page (CDC, n.d.).
Do people in wealthier countries report more meaning in life?
No. Life satisfaction rises with national wealth, but reported meaning in life does not, across the same 132-nation Gallup dataset (Oishi & Diener, 2014).
Related reading
- How to Find Your Purpose in Life
- How to Find Meaning in Life
- Living a Purposeful Life
- What Makes Life Meaningful
- What Meaning Without Religion Actually Looks Like
- What Percentage of People Feel Lost?
References
Alimujiang, A., Wiensch, A., Boss, J., Fleischer, N. L., Mondul, A. M., McLean, K., Mukherjee, B., & Pearce, C. L. (2019). Association between life purpose and mortality among US adults older than 50 years. JAMA Network Open, 2(5), e194270.
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Aaker, J. L., & Garbinsky, E. N. (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(6), 505-516.
Bates College, & Gallup. (2019). Forging pathways to purposeful work: The role of higher education.
Cohen, R., Bavishi, C., & Rozanski, A. (2016). Purpose in life and its relationship to all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events: A meta-analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 78(2), 122-133.
Costin, V., & Vignoles, V. L. (2020). Meaning is about mattering: Evaluating coherence, purpose, and existential mattering as precursors of meaning in life judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118(4), 864-884.
Frankl, V. E. (1946). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press.
Gallup. (2025, September). Purposeful work boosts engagement, but few experience it.
Heintzelman, S. J., & King, L. A. (2014). Life is pretty meaningful. American Psychologist, 69(6), 561-574.
Hill, P. L., & Turiano, N. A. (2014). Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1482-1486.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2005). Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 539-548.
Martela, F., & Steger, M. F. (2016). The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(5), 531-545.
McKnight, P. E., & Kashdan, T. B. (2009). Purpose in life as a system that creates and sustains health and well-being: An integrative, testable theory. Review of General Psychology, 13(3), 242-251.
Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2014). Residents of poor nations have a greater sense of meaning in life than residents of wealthy nations. Psychological Science, 25(2), 422-430.
Pew Research Center. (2018, November 20). Where Americans find meaning in life.
Robinson, O. C., et al. (2025). Quarter-life crisis episodes in emerging adulthood: A mixed-methods analysis of data from eight countries. Emerging Adulthood, 13(6), 1491-1506.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069-1081.
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719-727.
Silver, L., Huang, C., Clancy, L., Van Kessel, P., & Gubbala, S. (2021, November 18). What makes life meaningful? Views from 17 advanced economies. Pew Research Center.
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80-93.
Steger, M. F., Oishi, S., & Kashdan, T. B. (2009). Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(1), 43-52.
Sutin, A. R., et al. (2026). Purpose in life and mortality: A meta-analysis of the published literature and individual-participant data of 488,765 participants followed for up to 32 years. Psychological Medicine.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Well-being concepts.
Vaillant, G. E. (2012). Triumphs of experience: The men of the Harvard Grant Study. Belknap Press.
VanderWeele, T. J., Johnson, B. R., Bialowolski, P. T., et al. (2025). The Global Flourishing Study: Study profile and initial results on flourishing. Nature Mental Health, 3(6), 636-653.