Does your religion determine your wealth?

The study, from the nonpartisan wealth research firm New World Wealth, found that of the 13.1 million millionaires in the world, 7.4 million, or 56.2 percent, identify themselves as Christian when asked about their religion. Fully 6.5 percent of millionaires identified themselves as Muslim, 3.9 percent identified themselves as Hindu and 1.7 percent identified themselves as Jewish.

   According to an article from the New York Times by David Leonhardt the households of certain religions tend to have a larger annual income than others.                               

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How are wealth and religion related?

There are two broad reasons that religion and wealth are related. First, religion affects wealth indirectly through its very strong effect on important processes such as educational attainment, marriage, decisions to have kids, how many kids people have and women's decisions to work or stay home with their kids. Religion affects these behaviors and processes, and they, in turn, affect household income, expenses and the amount of money left over to save. Understanding these processes alone accounts for a large portion of the religion-wealth association.

What affect does religion have on work?

One of the most fascinating explanations is the direct effect religion can have on orientations toward work and money. Many of the important decisions about family, work and saving have roots in their religious beliefs. For example, in some conservative religious groups--including Conservative and Black Protestant denominations--becoming a minister, working for a social service agency or becoming a career missionary are considered good jobs. A calling into one of these careers can be important for religious reasons, but these jobs don't necessarily require high levels of education, don't typically pay well and won't make it easy to save and accumulate wealth.

How is religion and wealth shown through Judaism?

At the opposite end are Jewish families. Many Jewish mothers also stay home with their children for at least the first years of the child's life. But Jewish mothers are more likely to have high levels of education and a relatively small number of children. This makes it easier for the Jewish mother to devote time and other resources to early education. The Jewish mother is also more likely to return to work after her children enter school, adding to income and making saving and wealth accumulation more possible. Jewish families are also more likely to take a pragmatic approach to money--that is, money is more likely to be seen as a tool or a vehicle for taking care of family needs and other practical concerns--and tend to accumulate relatively high amounts of wealth.

How is religion and wealth shown through being Catholic?

White Catholics are an important example because their position in the wealth distribution has changed considerably in recent years. Less than a generation ago, white Catholics were relatively disadvantaged: they had low educations, low income, low wealth. Important shifts in orientations toward family and women's roles in the family were important contributors. White Catholics now have much smaller families than in prior generations and Catholic women are as likely as Mainline (or Liberal) Protestants to work out of the home. Combined with a pragmatic, pro-saving orientation toward work, this has propelled white Catholics up in the wealth distribution in recent years.

Question: Do you believe that your religion and income are connected?

Future research: For my future research I plan on researching the rivalry between certain religions.