Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/233733 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Citation: 
[Journal:] Population and Development Review [ISSN:] 1728-4457 [Volume:] 46 [Issue:] 4 [Publisher:] Wiley [Place:] Hoboken, NJ [Year:] 2020 [Pages:] 735-755
Publisher: 
Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Abstract: 
Considerable evidence has documented that the elderly are more religious and that religiosity is associated with better health and lower mortality. Yet, little is known about the reverse role of life expectancy or proximity to death, as opposed to age, for religiosity. This paper provides evidence for the distinct role of expected remaining life years for the importance of religion in individuals’ lives. We combine individual survey response data for more than 300,000 individuals from 95 countries over the period 1994–2014 with information from period life tables. Contrary to wide-held beliefs, religiosity decreases with greater expected proximity to death. The findings have important implications regarding the consequences of population aging for religiosity and associated outcomes.
Subjects: 
demographics
proximity of death
Religiosity
remaining life years
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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