Those who attend Church are likely to live longer than those who do not, a study has found, in results which may be linked to healthy lifestyle choices made by regular churchgoers.

British newspaper The Times reports:

“The fruit of the righteous,” it says in the book of Proverbs, “is a tree of life.”

That is not too far from the empirical truth, according to a study that suggests religiously observant people tend to live up to six years longer than atheists or agnostics.

Academics argue that the faithful not only smoke less, drink less and generally behave more sensibly, but also find it easier to maintain a healthy social network, especially in old age.

The findings, based on analysis of just over 1,600 American local newspaper obituaries, is the latest piece of evidence that religion may bring its consolations in this world as well as the next.