The list of general sources below provides bibliographic information for data sources used to inform estimates of educational attainment by religion. Most data were acquired directly from the organizations that collected them, but, in some cases, data were obtained from data archives. The list of archives from which data were obtained appears after the general sources. The subsequent list of sources by country provides abbreviated bibliographical information identifying the primary sources used to estimate differences in educational attainment by religion in 151 countries. As described in the Methodology, some adjustments to these initial estimates have been made to ensure measures of educational attainment are consistent with the highest quality country level estimates of attainment levels in the general population.

This report is based on information collected from 131 countries about differences in educational attainment by religion. For an additional 16 countries in which at least 95% of the total population identifies with one religious group (based on Pew Research Center’s 2015 report “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050”), values available for the general population are used to describe educational attainment in the group constituting the overwhelming majority of the population. In these cases, country level estimates are based on 2010 educational attainment estimates taken from population projections by age, sex and education carried out by researchers at the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC).82 Finally, data for Muslims in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar reflect only educational attainment for citizens of these Gulf countries. Educational attainment of citizens is used as a proxy for Muslim attainment because citizens overwhelmingly identify as Muslim. Although these countries also have large non-citizen populations, including Muslims and non-Muslims, breakdowns of educational attainment by religion of the non-citizen populations are not available.

At the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, researchers Michaela Potančoková and Marcin Stonawski compiled and standardized education data from these sources, in collaboration with Pew Research Center researchers.

General sources

Asian Barometer. The Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica and the Institute for Advanced Studies of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University. http://www.asianbarometer.org/.

Demographic and Health Surveys. MEASURE DHS. Administered by Macro International. http://www.dhsprogram.com/.

European Social Survey. Led by Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University. http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/.

European Values Study. Administered by the European Values Study Foundation at Tilburg University. http://www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu/.

Generations & Gender Programme: Survey Instruments. United Nations. http://www.unece.org/pau/ggp/welcome.html.

International Social Survey Program. ISSP Research Group, GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. http://www.gesis.org/en/issp/issp-home/.

Latinobarómetro. Administered by the Corporación Latinobarómetro. http://www.latinobarometro.org/.

Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey. United Nations Children’s Fund. http://www.childinfo.org/mics.html.

Reproductive Health Survey. Administered by the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) at the University of Washington. http://www.healthdata.org/about/ghdx/.

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/

Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections. The World Population Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (VID/ÖAW), the Demography Group and the Research Institute on Human Capital and Development of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). http://www.wittgensteincentre.org/en/index.htm.

Data archives

Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA). Pennsylvania State University. http://www.thearda.com/.

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). http://www.esds.ac.uk/.

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International (IPUMS). Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota. https://international.ipums.org/international/.

ZACAT Data Archive for the Social Sciences. GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/.

Redatam Informa. Centro Latinoamericano y Caribeno de Demografia (CELADE/CEPAL), Santiago de Chile. http://www.cepal.org/cgi-bin/getprod.asp?xml=/redatam/noticias/paginas/5/14185/P14185.xml&xsl=/redatam/tpl/p18f.xsl&base=/redatam/tpl/top-bottom.xsl%20.

Data sources by country

Afghanistan: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2010-2011

Albania: Census 2011

Algeria: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Algeria Family Health Survey 2002-2003)

Argentina: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Armenia: Census 2011

Aruba: Census 2010

Australia: Census 2011

Austria: Census 2001

Azerbaijan: Census 2009

Bahamas: Census 2010

Bahrain: Census 2010

Bangladesh: Census 2011

Belgium: European Social Survey 2008-2012

Belize: Census 2010

Benin: Demographic and Health Survey 2011-2012

Bolivia: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Brazil: Census 2010

Bulgaria: Census 2001/Census 2011

Burkina Faso: Census 2006

Burundi: Demographic and Health Survey 2010-2011

Cambodia: Census 2008

Cameroon: Census 2005

Canada: Census 2001

Cape Verde: Reproductive Health Survey 1998

Chad: Demographic and Health Survey 2004

Chile: Census 2002

China: Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents 2007

Colombia: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Comoros: Demographic and Health Survey 2012

Costa Rica: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Croatia: Census 2011

Czech Republic: Census 2011

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Demographic and Health Survey 2013-2014

Denmark: European Social Survey 2008-2012

Dominican Republic: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Ecuador: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Egypt: Census 2006

El Salvador: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Estonia: Census 2011

Ethiopia: Census 2007

Federated States of Micronesia: Census 2010

Fiji: Census 2007

Finland: Population Register 2010

France: Generations and Gender Survey 2005

Gabon: Demographic and Health Survey 2012

Gambia: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2000)

Georgia: Generations and Gender Survey 2006

Germany: Generations and Gender Survey 2005/Generations and Gender Survey Germany-Turkish subsample 2006

Ghana: Census 2010

Greece: European Social Survey 2008-2010

Guadeloupe: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2008)

Guatemala: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Guyana: Census 2002

Haiti: Census 2003

Honduras: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Hong Kong: Asian Barometer Survey 2001-2012

Hungary: Census 2011

Iceland: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Labour Force Survey 2010)

India: India Human Development Survey-II 2011-2012

Indonesia: Census 2010

Iran: Census 2006

Iraq: Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys 2011

Ireland: Census 2011

Israel: Census 2008

Italy: European Values Study 2008 2009

Ivory Coast: Demographic and Health Survey 2011-2012

Jamaica: Census 2001

Japan: Japanese General Social Survey 2006-2010

Kazakhstan: Global Islam Survey 2011-2012

Kenya: Demographic and Health Survey 2008-2009

Kosovo: Census 2011

Kuwait: Census 2011

Kyrgyzstan: Global Islam Survey 2011-2012

Latvia: International Social Survey Programme 2008-2012

Lesotho: Demographic and Health Survey 2009

Liberia: Census 2008

Lithuania: Census 2011

Madagascar: Demographic and Health Survey 2008-2009

Malawi: Census 2008

Malaysia: Census 2010

Maldives: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2006)

Mali: Census 2009

Malta: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Labour Force Survey 2010)

Martinique: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2008)

Mauritius: Census 2011

Mexico: Census 2010

Moldova: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2004)

Mongolia: Census 2010

Montenegro: Census 2011

Morocco: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2004)

Mozambique: Demographic and Health Survey 2011

Namibia: Demographic and Health Survey 2013

Nepal: Census 2011

Netherlands: Generations and Gender Survey 2002-2004

New Zealand: Census 2013

Nicaragua: Census 2005

Niger: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Demographic and Health Survey 2006)

Nigeria: General household Survey 2010/ Demographic and Health Survey 2013

Norway: Generations and Gender Survey Norway 2007-2008

Pakistan: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 1998)

Palestinian territories: Census 2007 (Data for the West Bank only)

Panama: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Paraguay: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Peru: Census 2007

Philippines: Census 2000

Poland: European Social Survey 2008-2012

Portugal: Census 2011

Puerto Rico: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2000)

Qatar: Census 2010

Republic of the Congo: Demographic and Health Survey 2011-2012

Romania: Census 2002

Russia: Generations and Gender Survey Russia 2004

Rwanda: Census 2002

Samoa: Census 2011

Saudi Arabia: Census 2004 (sample restricted to Saudi citizens only)**

Senegal: Demographic and Health Survey 2010-2011

Serbia: Census 2011

Sierra Leone: Census 2004

Singapore: Census 2010

Slovakia: Census 2011

Slovenia: Census 2002

Somalia: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006)

South Africa: Census 2001

South Korea: Census 2005

Spain: Census 2011/ Barómetro autonómico II 2010

St. Lucia: Census 2010

St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Census 2001

Swaziland: Demographic and Health Survey 2006-2007

Sweden: Generations and Gender Survey 2012-2013

Switzerland: Census 2000

Taiwan: Asian Barometer Survey 2001, 2006, 2010

Tajikistan: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Living Standards Measurement Survey 2009)

Tanzania: Demographic and Health Survey 2004-2005

Thailand: Census 2000

Timor-Leste: Census 2010

Togo: Demographic and Health Survey 2013-2014

Tonga: Census 2011

Trinidad and Tobago: Census 2011

Tunisia: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on National Survey on Population and Employment 2010)

Turkey: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Projections 2010* (based on Census 2000)

Uganda: Census 2002

United Kingdom: Census 2011

United States: Religious Landscape Study, 2014/ Jewish Americans Survey, 2013/ Muslim Americans Survey, 2011/ Asian Americans Survey, 2012

Uruguay: Extended National Survey of Homes (ENHA) 2006

Uzbekistan: Life in Transition II 2010

Vanuatu: Census 2009

Venezuela: Latinobarómetro 2000-2010

Vietnam: Census 1999

Yemen: Yemen National Social Protection and Monitoring Survey 2012-2013

Zambia: Census 2010

Zimbabwe: Demographic and Health Survey 2010-2011

* Data on educational attainment by religion was not available, but at least 95% of the total population identified with one religious group (based on Pew Research Center’s 2015 report The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050). The data on education for the total population comes from population projections carried out by researchers at WIC.83

For more details see: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/subsites/Institute/VID/dataexplorer/index.html

** Data on educational attainment by religion was not available. Although the total Saudi population is estimated to be 93% Muslim, the Saudi citizen population is expected to be more than 95% Muslim. Educational attainment calculated for Saudi citizen population only.