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Pew Research Finds Jews & Hindus are More Educated & Richer

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The new Pew Research study found that Jews and Hindus are among both the most educated and wealthiest compared to other religions and all Americans.

The new data from Pew Research on religion in the United States has surprised many with its findings. While many have focused on the study’s findings about the decline in Christianity and rise in the non-affiliated, the report actually found a lot more than just affiliation trends. For example, according to the new report, Hindus and Jews are the most educated people in America. They also earn the most on average.

Income of Religious Groups

The report found that 59 percent of Jews and 77 percent of Hindus are college graduates. Americans as a whole, however, only 27 percent have academic degrees. Moreover, Jews and Hindus tend to achieve post-graduate degrees with 31 percent and 48 percent expanding their collegiate education respectively. Additionally, 44 percent of Jews and 36 percent of Hindus have an annual income of more than $100,000. Only 19 percent of the general public earn the same amount in one year.

JewHinduEducation

Other demographically significant findings of study are that the percentage of non-Christian believers in America increased by 1.2 percent from 4.7 percent to 5.9 percent in seven years. The number of Christian worshippers decreased from 78 percent to 70.6 percent in 2014. The fastest-growing religions in America are Islam, Hinduism and other faiths such as New Age religions and Unitarians. Additionally, the number of non-believers increased by 6.7 percent between 2007 and 2014. About 55.8 million people are unaffiliated with any faith.

Altogether 35,071 American adults participated in the study through telephone interviews between June 4 and September 30, 2014. The US Religious Landscape Study is an annual report by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank specializing in social issues, public opinion and demographic trends in the United States. The margin of error is 0.6 percentage points.

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