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Study: Jews wealthy, educated and old

By · February 25, 2008

Jews earn more money, are better educated and have fewer children at home than the members of most other faiths, according to a new study.

Results of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released Monday showed 46 percent of Jews earning more than $100,000 a year. Only Hindus, at 43 percent, were above 30 percent.

Thirty-five percent of 676 Jews surveyed earned a post-graduate degree, with only the Hindus at 48 percent above that figure.

Seventy-two percent of Jews have no children at home, tied with “Other Christians.” More than half of American Jews are 50 or older.

The national survey of 35,000 adults, conducted in English and Spanish, also showed that just 51 percent of Americans are Protestant, which means that the United States is on the verge of no longer being a majority Protestant country.

It also showed that more than a quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood in favor of another religion or no religion, and that 16.1 percent of adults say they are not affiliated with any faith.

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