Why 70% of Hindu Americans have degrees — but only 35% of US adults do

America likes to imagine that faith and fortune occupy different corners of public life. Religion is personal; success is economic. In practice, however, the two often overlap — and the evidence shows up most clearly in education.
A sweeping new study by the Pew Research Centre has found that Hindus are now the most highly educated religious group in the United States, with Jews close behind. The data comes from Pew’s 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study, one of the most detailed portraits of religion in contemporary America, based on responses from 36,908 adults surveyed between July 2023 and March 2024 across all 50 US states.