Thread by @ryanburge

Religion in the United States has become a haven for those who have done everything "right"

College degree
Middle class income
Married
Children

That's the clear and unmistakable story from the data. And it's bad for democracy and religion.

graphsaboutreligion.com/p/religion-has…

There is something very clear in the data: educated people are more likely to identify with a religious tradition.

That's true in every single wave of the CES since 2008.

The idea that religion is a refuge for the uneducated is demonstrably false.

That's all the case when looking at religious attendance. The people who are the most likely to attend weekly are those with a post-graduate degree.

The least likely? Those with a high school diploma or less.

It's consistent in all the data I've ever looked at.

What about income? This is how education and income interact when it comes to religious attendance.

Educated folks are in church more.

But look at income: it's middle class folks who are in church the most. Not the very rich and not the very poor.

And what about marriage and family?

Well, look at this: the folks who are the most likely to attend weekly are married with children!

And it's not particularly close, honestly. 2x as likely to weekly attend. You really need both for the highest attendance rate.

I think this is a really bad thing for American democracy and American religion.

Churches used to be places of class and political diversity. Now, that's not the case. It's all echo chambers of folks who did things "right."

That leaves most folks on the fringes.

Subscribe!

For those asking if this education and religion thing is really about generational differences.

Among those born between 1940 and 1959, the more educated = the more likely to be no religion.

For those born > 1975, it's clearly the opposite. More educated = less none.