The Most Educated Religious Groups In America

0:00Hey there, and welcome to The College Investor Audio Show, or so glad you're hanging out with us today. Let's take a look at this, an interesting topic today, and you can find this by the way at thecollegeinvestor.com. The most educated religious groups in America. Very interesting. We're going to take a look at it. Again, thecollegeinvestor.com is where you can find it. You can also like us and subscribe and all the things on social media at the college investor. Search for those words. You're going to find this pretty much anywhere you are. Let's dive in, though. Here's this new report from the Pew Research Center that offers one of the most detailed looks at how educational attainment differs across religious groups in America. This isn't worldwide, just in America. The findings come from Pew's 2023-24 Religious Landscapes Study, which is a survey of 36,000, almost 37,000 US adults. So because of the large sample size, researchers were actually able to analyze not only broad religious categories, but also specific denominations within Protestantism and other traditions.

1:06The headline, finding this, Hindus and Jews stand apart by a wide margin. And I think this should be understood, but I'll preface this anyway. This is not an indictment on any religious system, and it's not any sort of superiority or whatever. We're just doing some numbers. All right. Hindus and Jews top the list. Seven in 10 Hindus in the United States hold at least a bachelor's degree, the highest share of any religious group measured. This is also not to say that just because you have a bachelor's means you're smarter than another person, we're not doing that either. But anyway, Jewish Americans follow closely behind, of course, with 65% reporting a four-year college degree or higher. Doesn't mean you're intellectually superior. Both degrees nearly double the national average of 35% for all U.S. adults. Other religious groups with comparatively high levels of education include Orthodox Christians. Christians, 45%, Muslims, 44%, Buddhists, and right around 40% in mainline Protestants,

2:1440%. Catholics overall match the national average at 35%. And then we do this separation thing even further. So at the lower end of the spectrum are evangelical Protestants, 29%. And then members of historically black Protestant churches, 24% have a four degree, a four-year college degree. I don't know if this is very helpful because like we stand shoulder to shoulder and we're all in unity under one Jesus Christ. So I don't know, like in my eyes, in my theology, this isn't very helpful, but here's what Pew's trying to do. They're trying to look at the differences and then see how they reflect an immigration pattern or a mix of immigration patterns, socioeconomic factors, denominational history, and geographic distribution. Pew's report does not speculate on causes, which is so important here, but the educational

3:17profile of Hindu Americans, for example, aligns with broader immigration data showing that just many Indian immigrants arrive at the US through employment-based visa programs. That favor highly skilled workers. But then there's a sharp divide within Protestantism. The size of Pew's survey actually makes it possible to dive in really, really deep. Whether it's helpful or not, I don't know, to look more closely at educational attainment within Christian traditions. Let's take a look at evangelical Protestants. They have a bachelor, 29%, bachelor's degree or more, slightly below the national average. Okay. But the range with any evangelical denominations is very wide here. In the group, she got members of the Global Methodist Church, 57% have a degree. The Presbyterian Church, 57% as well, and then on the other end, just 18% of members of the assemblies of God hold college degrees.

4:21Southern Baptists, 23%, independent Baptists, 20%, they fall well below the national average. You have all these different things. These internal differences suggest that educational attainment cannot be generalized across broad labels like evangelical. That's why you have to separate it, I guess. Institutional history, theology, regional concentration, and member demographics do all play a role here. And the only thing we're looking at is just four-year degrees. Let's talk about mainline Protestantism. Mainline Protestants overall are more educated, quote, quote, unquote, than evangelicals, with 40% holding at least a bachelor's degree. Among denominations, Pew is able to analyze separately. The Episcopal Church stands out, 67%, Presbyterian USA, 58%, United Church of Christ, 50%, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 39%, there's that word evangelical, but I thought they were

5:21mainline. Anyway, and the United Methodist Church, 42%, cluster near the national average. The American Baptist Church's USA, 13%, the 67% figure for Episcopalians, places them roughly on par with Jewish Americans, and just slightly below Hindus, making them one of the most highly educated Christian groups in the country. Now, historically black Protestant churches, okay, so among historically black Protestant churches, 24% of members have a college degree or more below the national average. And within that tradition, the National Baptist Convention stands at 24%, the Church of God in Christ, 10%. Pew did not have sufficient sample sizes to report separate results for some smaller denominations like the African Methodist Episcopal Church, just don't have the numbers there. The religious unaffiliated, okay, here we go, the nuns, N-O-N-E-S, the religiously unaffiliated

6:27account for a growing share of the U.S. population, although still very small, but their educational profile is not really uniform, 37% of the nuns, again, N-O-N-E-S, have a bachelor's degree or more, slightly above the average for national average. So breaking that down, we got agnostics at 53%, atheists at 48%, and I guess this interesting category, nothing in particular, 29%, I would argue that would be agnostic, but I digress. The contrast is significant. Agnostics and atheists are substantially more likely than Americans overall to hold college degrees. It's a small percentage of people, though. Those who describe their religion as nothing in particular are less likely than average to have completed college. Takeaways, if there are any, there's just a lot of numbers and stuff. Educational attainment is closely tied to income, employment stability, long-term wealth

7:31accumulation. So according to federal labor data, workers with bachelor's degrees typically earns substantially more over a lifetime than those with only a high school diploma. For example, communities with higher shares of college-educated adults often report higher median earnings and lower unemployment rates. Educational attainment can influence views on public policy, including education funding, student loan programs, workforce training initiatives, and then within religious institutions, educational differences may affect leadership structures, charitable priorities, and institutional investments in schools or scholarship programs. They don't necessarily have a degree under name, but they're still educated. Does that make sense? At the same time, education levels within religious groups are shaped by broader demographics. Of course, immigration policy, geographic settlement patterns, historical access to higher education, and economic inequality. In some traditions, they're more likely to be missionaries, for instance.

8:35Puse survey does not draw conclusions about why these differences exist. They're just numbers. It's just a statistical snapshot. Very important not to pigeonhole people based on percentages. And of course, we're only looking at the one thing of, do you got a four-year degree, or do you not have a four-year degree? However, from these numbers, we can then dive in deeper and see what the cause is. And debate and talk about, and all that kind of thing, which can hopefully be helpful. If you want to talk about these things, we'd love to know your thoughts about the topic today. dive in deeper, leave a comment, anything at thecollegeinvestor.com. You can also search for the college investor on social media, pretty much anywhere you are, is where we are, too. We'd love to get to know you, talk about this, or any other topic about money. We just want to help you, wherever you are in your money journey. Alright, and that is our show for today.

9:35Thank you so much for stopping by today, and we'll talk to you again real soon.