I stumbled across this article, and while I don't have much original to add, I find it rather interesting. I do know that some faiths admonish higher education so that may explain why Hindus and Reform Jews perform consistently well, while Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostals are in the bottom two in both categories.



From a different article the following was written:

"Some of the income differences probably stem from culture. Some faiths place great importance on formal education. But the differences are also self-reinforcing. People who make more money can send their children to better schools, exacerbating the many advantages they have over poorer children. Round and round, the cycle goes. It won’t solve itself."

Do you believe this to be more of a contributing factor than anything else? It certainly seems to have a large affect in my eyes, but it may be overstated.

If my wife and I had just had 2 children instead of 8 she'd probably be working full time right now instead of being a stay at home mom.

If she worked full time our income would be double what it is. Were both educated people with very marketable skill sets. Culture isn't the only factor which affects family income. The decision(or religious mandate) to use or not to use birth control affects it as well. It takes time an effort to raise kids and thus that takes away time and effort that can be devoted toward earning your nut.

I wonder what this says about mormon households. They seem to be right at the national average in both categories despite having large numbers of children. Could this be contributed to their acceptance of polygamy? To be fair, I have no idea how prevalent this practice is.

I don't believe polygamy is very common among Mormons. The official LDS church does not practice it anymore; only the fringe sects. I was surprised Mormons didn't place higher in income.

I'm also a bit surprised Catholics placed as high as they did. Edit: Not that surprised... they're right around average

I think in some cases, religious culture plays a large part, but there are enough other factors that the numbers can be skewed. JWs have always been against higher education, or even trying to get ahead at work in non-degreed jobs. Armageddon is forever right around the corner, so striving after worldly riches displays a lack of faith. I think Pentecostals were very similar for many years, but have recently liberalised their views toward higher education, so you may see their numbers inch up in coming years.

Adventist evangelical faiths have often gained many more converts among the disenfranchised who don't realistically see a hope to better their situation by normal (secular) means. This becomes a self-reinforcing spiral downward as you attract poorer people and don't promote education to them.

Edit: Whoops... read the chart backwards. The analysis I gave (if anyone saw it) is wrong.

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This chart seems to be the raw data source for the income portion of the graph:

http://www.pewforum.org/Income-Distr...us-Groups.aspx