Pew Profile of Religion in the USA

The PEW Research group has released a pretty broad survey of religion in the US. There's so much information, it will take a while to pick through it all. I took a glance at the figures for education by religion, and found some interesting nuggets.

Compared to the National Average, 6% more Evangelical Christians have only a high school diploma or less, while 7% fewer have at least a college degree. 11% fewer Mormons have only a high school degree or less, but only 1% more have at least a college degree. Fully 28% fewer Jews have at most a high school degree, and 32% more have at least a college degree (59%, compared to 27% nationally). The biggest discrepancy is Hindus, for whom 34% fewer are limited to a high school degree, and 47% more have at least a college degree (74% of Hindus in the US have at least a college degree). There's a variety of effects to sort out (my guess is that a significant share of Hindus are temporary/permanent immigrants who are here under immigration provisions that favor professional/college-trained workers).

With a few exceptions, most groups people who identify with a religion are more educated than society as a whole. Those exceptions are Evangelical Christians, Historically Black Christian Denominations, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims, who all trend more toward the HS-or-less, and less toward "college-or-more" than the national average. JW's in particular are 20% higher than the national average in HS-or-less, and 18% lower in the college-or-more segments.

I'm not saying what any of this means. I just found it interesting.