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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe most and least educated U.S. religious groups
Attainment of a four-year college degree in the United States, often regarded as a key asset for economic success, varies by race and gender. But the share of people completing a college education also differs by religion, with members of some faith groups much more educated, on average, than others.
By far, Hindus and Unitarian Universalists have among the largest share of those with a college degree 77% and 67% respectively. Roughly six-in-ten Jews (59%) have college degrees, as do similar shares in both the Anglican church (59%) and the Episcopal Church (56%).
These groups are among the top of a list of 30 U.S. religious groups ranked by educational attainment based on data from our 2014 Religious Landscape Study.
Given the strong correlation between educational attainment and economic success, it is not surprising that Jews and Hindus, on average, have high household incomes, with four-in-ten Jews (44%) and roughly a third of Hindus (36%) living in households with annual incomes of at least $100,000, according to the 2014 study.
Other religious groups also have a higher percentage of college graduates than the full sample of more than 35,000 U.S. adults surveyed in the 2014 Religious Landscape Study, among whom 27% completed university. They include Buddhists and members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) both at 47% as well as Orthodox Christians (40%), Muslims (39%) and Mormons (33%).
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Our study also looked at educational attainment in three categories of religiously unaffiliated people. About four-in-ten atheists (43%) and agnostics (42%) have earned college degrees, as have nearly a quarter (24%) of those who say their religion is nothing in particular.
Link: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/04/the-most-and-least-educated-u-s-religious-groups/
TheRealNorth
(9,478 posts)When you got faith healing?
TheBlackAdder
(28,184 posts)TheBlackAdder
(28,184 posts)Doreen
(11,686 posts)It is more of a spiritual philosophy. By the definition of the dictionary, religion is the belief and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal god or gods.
Hekate
(90,645 posts)Buddhism arrived in the West as a set of written materials, largely shorn of the baggage of the myriad cultures for whom it precisely fills the niche marked "religion," complete with gods and goddesses (bodhisattvas), demons, heavens, hells, and ritual behavior.
It's easy to talk about how something is a "spiritual philosophy" when you remove it from the masses of humans engaged in it. As an exercise, try picking up a modern translation of the New Testament and read it pretending you know nothing of modern Christianity. As one Japanese roshi said over a century ago: "Jesus almost sounds like he could be a bodhisattva." (My husband says he was a nice Jewish boy, but that's his personal orientation.)
CanonRay
(14,101 posts)3catwoman3
(23,973 posts)I have been a member of a small UU congregation for the last 7 years, and am impressed by the level of intelligence and civic engagement I have found in this group of people.
Hekate
(90,645 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)There is basically no difference except that Anglicans recognize the British monarch as their authority. Neither believes in the authority of the Pope of Rome.
"The Episcopal Church (TEC) is the United States-based member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It became separate from the Church of England (Anglicans) after the American Revolution, whose clergy are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England."
trixie2
(905 posts)Our study also looked at educational attainment in three categories of religiously unaffiliated people. About four-in-ten atheists (43%) and agnostics (42%) have earned college degrees, as have nearly a quarter (24%) of those who say their religion is nothing in particular.
I am so sick of it. Believe what you want but leave me out of it.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)I consider myself a Diest now. I guess in this study I would be lumped in with Agnostics?
Almost all my southern baptist friend who got a degree are no longer baptist.
And I have a BS. Mainly because I had the good fortune to be raised by a father who had a doctorate and a very good income.