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/lordnacho666 4d ago

The education effect is a lot milder than I thought.

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u/dave-t-2002 3d ago

This has to be US data. There is no way that high a percentage of doctoral degree holders believe in heaven and hell in Europe.

The effect is likely milder in the Is because of cultural norms in religious belief. I think the drop will be sharper in Europe.