In America, Does More Education Equal Less Religion?

Institution	Pew Research Center
Titel	In America, Does More Education Equal Less Religion?
Quelle	(2017), (24 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Quantitative Daten; Religion; Religious Factors; Educational Attainment; Adults; College Graduates; High School Graduates; Beliefs; Identification (Psychology); Dropouts; Christianity; Protestants; Catholics; Jews; Muslims; Buddhism; Islam + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Hochschulabsolvent; Hochschulabsolventin; High school; High schools; Graduate; Graduates; Oberschule; Absolvent; Absolventin; Belief; Glaube; Drop-out; Drop-outs; Dropout; Early leavers; Schulversagen; Christentum; Protestantism; Protestantismus; Katholik; Jew; Jude; Jüdin; Juden; Muslim; Muslimin; Buddhismus
Abstract	This analysis looks at measures of religious identification and commitment among Americans with different levels of education. Looking at the U.S. public as a whole, the answer to the question of whether more education is correlated with less religion appears to be yes. Among all U.S. adults, college graduates are considerably less likely than those who have less education to say religion is "very important" in their lives: Fewer than half of college graduates (46%) say this, compared with nearly six-in-ten of those with no more than a high school education (58%). Highly educated Americans also are less inclined than others to say they believe in God with absolute certainty and to pray on a daily basis. And, when asked about their religious identity, college graduates are more likely than others to describe themselves as atheists or agnostics. While college graduates are more likely than others to describe themselves as atheists or agnostics and less likely to identify with Christianity (64% describe themselves as Christians, compared with 71% of those with some college education and 75% of those with a high school degree or less), they are not, on the whole, much less likely than others to identify with any religion. Fully three quarters of college graduates are affiliated with some religion (including 11% who say they are adherents of non-Christian faiths like Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism), as are 76% of those with some college experience and 78% of those whose education topped out with high school. The focus in this analysis is on describing the patterns found in recent Pew Research Center polling, particularly the very large U.S. Religious Landscape Study, which involved interviews with more than 35,000 Americans reached on randomly dialed cellphones and landlines. This analysis generally uses three categories of educational attainment, dividing U.S. adults into those who have a college degree, those who have some college (including those with an associate's degree and those with some community college experience), and those who have only a high school diploma or less (including those with no high school diploma and those who never reached high school). Overall, U.S. adults with college degrees are less religious than others, but this pattern does not hold among Christians. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Pew Research Center. 1615 L Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-419-4500; Fax: 202-419-4505; Web site: http://pewresearch.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01