Health · Mental Health · 10 hrs ago
Studies suggest monastic life can narrow survival gaps
A Psychology Today essay looks at whether life in a monastery can reduce the effects of social inequality on health and lifespan.
It describes a study of 2,421 German Catholic monks, which found no statistically significant survival difference between brothers, who often did manual work, and better-educated padres in senior roles.
Other studies cited found that monks in Bavaria could live longer than other men, and that clergy in South Korea had the highest reported average age at death among the occupational groups studied.
The essay also says the gap in life expectancy between nuns and monks was much smaller than the gap between women and men in the general population.
Monasteries provide shared housing, meals, routines and care, along with community, useful work and a sense of purpose.
These findings suggest that shared living and less competition may help reduce some health inequalities, though the studies described do not establish that monastic life causes longer lives.
The essay presents this as an alternative to the idea that income and education alone determine who lives longer.
A study of 2,421 German Catholic monks found no statistically significant survival difference between monks in lower- and higher-status roles.
Other research cited in the article found that monks may live longer than other men, while nuns’ life expectancy was about one year higher than monks’.
The article says shared living conditions, routines, care, community and purpose may help reduce health and survival gaps in monastic life.
Outside monasteries, the article cites large life expectancy and healthy-life-expectancy gaps linked to income and deprivation.
- Who
- German Catholic monks, along with monks and nuns in other studies.
- What
- Research suggests that monastic life can reduce survival gaps linked to socioeconomic status and gender.
- When
- A study published in 2025 examined monks born between 1840 and 1959. The article was published on October 11, 2026.
- Where
- The studies cited cover German Catholic monasteries, Bavarian religious communities, Korea, England and the United States.
- Why
- The article suggests that shared living conditions, routines, care, community and purpose may contribute to the findings.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
peace without being alone.
win at life
The German Catholic monks in a later study were born during this period.
A Korean study analysed newspaper death notices across occupational groups.
People born in England’s most deprived areas could expect nearly 20 fewer years in good health than those born in its least deprived areas.
A girl born in the United States could expect to live 4.9 years longer than a boy born the same year.
A study of 2,421 German Catholic monks found no statistically significant survival difference between brothers and padres.
- German monk study
- 2,421 Catholic monks
- Monk study birth years
- 1840–1959
- U.S. life expectancy gap
- At age 40, the richest 1% of men could expect to live 14.8 years longer than the poorest 1%; the gap for women was 10.6 years.
- England healthy-life gap
- 19.3 fewer years for women and 18.6 fewer years for men born in the most deprived areas in 2018–20.
- Bavarian religious communities
- Nuns’ life expectancy exceeded monks’ by about one year.
Sources
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