The social significance of chaplains: evidence from a national survey

How often do people have contact with chaplains? How valuable do they find that contact? We answer these questions with data from a 2019 NORC AmeriSpeaks survey. Twenty-one percent of respondents had contact with a chaplain in the past two-years, 57% in a healthcare setting. The majority find that contact moderately or very valuable. Christians were more likely than non-Christians and respondents with no religion to have contact with chaplains. People of color who were not Christians or had no religion were more likely than their white counterparts to have contact with a chaplain. Those living in the southern and western United States were also more likely than those living in the northeast to have contact with a chaplain. When contact with a chaplain did take place, Christians were more likely than those of no religion to find the contact moderately or very valuable. Respondents from the midwest, south, and west, those who were more educated, and those who were older were also more likely to find contact with a chaplain valuable.