Ahead of the Trend — September 2025

Ahead of the Trend Newsletter

Each month, Dr. Ryan Burge, author and political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, publishes two columns highlighting the latest news in religion research utilizing data from the ARDA. We are excited to share these Ahead of the Trend articles with you.

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Parenting Isn’t Easy—But Faith Might Help a Little

As you may have heard, the United States is facing a looming fertility crisis. Put simply, Americans are having fewer children. Those at the Institute for Family Studies suggest religion may be a key factor, connecting the rise of the unaffiliated with declining birth rates among the nonreligious.

An interesting dataset from the Pew Research Center that asks what should be a central question in this debate: Do parents actually like being parents? The clear impression that emerges from this data is that significant majorities of parents really do seem to enjoy having children: 83% find it enjoyable most or all of the time.

The Many Jobs of a Religious Leader

The National Survey of Religious Leaders provides insights into how clergy spend their time—from hours worked per week to additional employment. Viewing this data, there are some clear findings about the work-life balance of religious leaders.

Most ministers didn’t start out that way. In fact, two-thirds had another career before they became a religious leader.

Lots of clergy do other things outside their primary occupation. Some serve multiple congregations while others are also chaplains. A significant number have additional employment that has nothing to do with religion.

A majority of clergy work more than forty hours a week across all these responsibilities. A worrying share (25%) are spending 60 hours a week or more across their various jobs.

Previous Ahead of the Trend Articles:

Is Divorce the Next Front in the Culture War? There’s an issue that is starting to creep into the mainstream discourse—divorce. The General Social Survey has been asking a question about divorce since 1974: “Should divorce in this country be easier or more difficult to obtain than it is now?” It’s a perfect window into how Americans have been thinking about the topic over the last several decades and whether those views are shifting.

Higher Education on Trial: Religion, Politics, and Public Doubt The American Values Survey, fielded in 2023, asked respondents whether college was a good investment today. In the sample of about 2,500 respondents, only 43% of them said that it was. That’s pretty stunning to think about—most Americans did not believe that earning a college degree is worth the time and money involved. When broken down by religious tradition, there was some significant variation between groups.

The Association of Religion Data Archives | Website