Pew report on schooling of different faiths finds disparity between religions in some areas of world such as sub-Saharan Africa

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Jews are better educated than any other major religious group in the world, with an average of 13.4 years of schooling and a majority going on to higher education, a study has found.

At the other end of the educational scale, Hindus and Muslims have the fewest years of formal schooling, with an average of 5.6 years.



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The main reason for the disparity is that Jews are largely concentrated in Israel and the US, countries with high levels of education generally, whereas 98% of the world’s Hindus live in the developing countries of India, Nepal and Bangladesh.



Among Muslims, those that live in countries with strong economies are well-educated, but those who live in developing regions have comparatively short periods of formal schooling – and girls fare worse than boys.



But there are also notable differences between religious groups in the same areas of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where Christians are generally better educated than Muslims.



The study, Religion and Education Around the World, was published on Tuesday by the Washington-based Pew Research Center.



It found that, compared with the Jewish average of more than 13 years of formal schooling, Christians had 9.3 years, Buddhists 7.9, and Muslims and Hindus 5.6. Adults with no religious affiliation spend 8.8 years in school on average.

Almost one in five of all adults – more than 680 million people – received no formal schooling, but for Muslims and Hindus, the number missing out on education rose to around two in five.



However, in recent years the amount of time spent at school has increased among all groups.



According to Pew, the youngest Hindus in the study (born between 1976 and 1985) spent an average of 7.1 years in school – nearly twice as long as the oldest Hindus (born between 1936 and 1955).



Within three generations, Muslims, similarly, were spending an extra three years at school, with an extra 2.5 years for Buddhists. Over the same period, Christians gained just an extra year and Jews less than half a year.

Among religiously unaffiliated adults, the youngest had an extra 2.9 years in school, overtaking Christians for the number of school years for this age group.



Pew found similar changes when looking at the educational gender gap. Although overall a much higher proportion of women had received no formal education, and those that had generally spent fewer years in school, the gap was shrinking with successive generations.



But among Hindus, there was still an 18-point gap between the youngest men and women, with 38% of women having no formal education compared with 20% of men.



The gender gap among the youngest Muslims was 10 points, with 33% of women not going to school compared with 23% of men.



The religiously unaffiliated had closed the gap within three generations, although there were still 2% of men and women having no formal education.



In higher education, Jews strikingly reversed the gender gap. In the youngest group, 69% of women have degrees compared with 57% of men – reversing a seven-point gap in favour of men among the oldest Jews to a 12-point gap in favour of women. Christians and the religiously unaffiliated also reversed gaps but to a lesser extent.



The report emphasises the difference in education between people in economically developed areas and those in poorer, less developed ones, regardless of religion. Among the factors affecting education levels are socioeconomic conditions, armed conflict, child labour and child marriage.



Christians in Europe and North America tend to be much more highly educated than those in sub-Saharan Africa.



Hindus have relatively low levels of education in India, Bangladesh and Nepal – but in the US, 96% have college degrees, a higher share than any other major religious group.



In general, religious minorities in the US are more likely to have college degrees than the Christian majority (Hindus 96%, Jews 75%, Muslims 54%, Buddhists 53%, unaffiliated 44%, Christians 36%).



In sub-Saharan Africa, Muslims are more than twice as likely as Christians to have no formal schooling – and the gap is widening.



The report says: “Some scholars suggest that the source of the Christian-Muslim attainment gap is rooted in the location of Christian missionary activity during colonial times. Missionary-built educational facilities were often located in what became heavily Christian areas rather than predominantly Muslim locales … As a result, Christians gained an educational edge over Muslims that lasted decades.”

