Why Nuns Lead Longer, Healthier Lives

In a recent episode of Waitrose’s Dish podcast, Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan said that she used to check Rip.ie (an Irish site which tracks and publishes deaths) in her previous work at an optician’s.

She said many of the people who came into her shop were older, and she found out some had sadly passed away when ringing about missed appointments. So, she devised a system of checking the site and noting who had passed instead.

But she noticed an anomaly. “We got a lot of nuns,” she said in a viral Instagram clip. “So you’d be like, Sister Ignatius, born 1932… I started… in my head, guessing if people were dead,” and checking the site in anticipation.

“They were always alive. Nuns are immortal.”

That’s not literally true, at least in the secular sense – but some science suggests they do live longer and healthier than many of us.

Before her death in 2023, a French nun named Sister André was the oldest living person in the world. She passed aged just under 119.

One dementia researcher named David Snowdon found that “Catholic sisters had a mortality advantage that increased dramatically over calendar time, and from early to more recent birth cohorts”. In this research, he suggested this may be due to a lower rate of smoking.

Anthropologist Anna Corwin, who wrote a book called Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Living Well, interviewed and spent time in an American convent.

She said in her book that nuns were “27% more likely to live into their 70s than their lay peers, and their likelihood of living longer increased with time”.

The author suggested that a strong sense of community (which has been linked to longer life), a better attitude towards ageing (associated with less ageing-related decline), better nutrition, and a sense of purpose (researchers think this could add years to your life and even maintain your cognitive health).

They also move regularly, which we know is important for a longer, healthier life, Corwin wrote for Yes!. She added, “nuns experience greater physical and emotional well-being at the end of life than other women”.

All of these health benefits are attainable to non-nuns. As we mentioned before, a better diet, enough exercise, community, a positive attitude towards ageing, and a sense of purpose are all science-backed ways to improve your odds of staying healthier for longer.

And recent research has found that tiny shifts in many of these habits go a long way. Those who slept five minutes longer, ate just a half-portion more of fruit and veg a day, and/or exercised an added two minutes than those in the bottom 5% of healthy lifestyle patterns were expected to live a year longer.

Corwin herself said, “The good news is that you don’t have to live in a convent to do the things that keep these nuns healthy and happy.

“By staying active, cultivating caring relationships, and finding ways to talk bravely about death and dying, we can all benefit from what nuns know about healthy ageing.”