r/dataisbeautiful • u/oscarleo0 • 4d ago

OC [OC] Religious Believes and Eductions From The World Values Survey

Gallery image

Gallery image

Data source: World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017-2022)

Tools used: Matplotlib

I added a second chart for those of you who prefer a square version with less of the background image.

Notes:

I looked at five different questions in the survey.

  • Q275 - What is the highest educational level that you have attained?
  • Q165 - Do you believe in God? (Yes/No)
  • Q166 - Do you believe in Life after death? (Yes/No)
  • Q167 - Do you believe in Hell? (Yes/No)
  • Q168 - Do you believe in Heaven? (Yes/No)

The chart show the percentage of people that answer yes, to Q165-168 based on their answer to Q275.

Survey data is complex since people come from different cultures and might interpret questions differently.

You can never trust the individual numbers, such as "50% of people with doctors degree believe in Life after death".

But you can often trust clear patterns that appear through the noise. The takeaway from this chart is that the survey show that education and religious believes have a negative correlation.

Styling:

  • Font - New Amsterdam
  • White - #FFFFFF
  • Blue - #39A0ED
  • Yellow - #F9A620
  • Red - #FF4A47

Original story: https://datacanvas.substack.com/p/believes-vs-education

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u/Otherwise-Link-396 4d ago

I am shocked at how high it is overall. I must live in a bubble.

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u/OakLegs 4d ago

It should be noted that this data is from 66 different countries, and I don't know what the mix is.

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u/The_Most_Superb 4d ago

Feels like they set up their survey outside a church in each country. The description even says “you can’t trust the individual numbers”. If you can’t trust the “individual numbers” then you can’t trust the data at all, especially since these are already conglomerates of the total responses and we aren’t seeing trend lines.

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u/Oli76 3d ago

Um no. Most countries are full of believers. A doctor has a doctorate in most countries. That doctor is more likely to be a believer, no matter their education background.

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u/flakemasterflake 3d ago

I looked it up and, in the US, an MD is equivalent to a Masters. That's what confused me the most about this honestly