Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Muslim Americans the Most Racially Diverse Religious Group in the U.S.

The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies has published results from "the first-ever nationally representative study of a randomly selected sample of Muslim Americans." The study covers numerous subject areas, including Religion, Politics, Ethnicity, Education, Economic Levels, Gender Equality, and Social Participation. Some of the more fascinating results:

Muslims are the most racially diverse religious group in the United States, with 35% African-Americans, 28% White, 18% Asian, another 18% "Other" and 1% Hispanic.





In comparison, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Mormons are all at least 76% White.






Muslim Americans have the highest levels of education after Jewish Americans, with 40% holding a college degree or higher. The other percentages are: Jews 61%, Protestants 35%, Mormons 32%, Catholics 29% and the U.S. General Population 29%.

Muslim American Women also have the second highest level of education, with 42% holding college degrees or higher. Jewish women were at 58%, Protestants 33%, U.S. General Population 29%, Mormons 28% and Catholics 28%.

"In addition, as a group, Muslim Americans have the highest degree of economic gender parity at the high and low ends of the income spectrum."

Politically, 49% of Muslim Americans identify themselves as Democrats, 37% as Independents and only 8% as Republicans. Looks like the Cheney-Bush efforts to woo Muslims over the last eight years really paid off.

Unfortunately, young Muslim Americans between 18 and 29 are the least likely to be registered to vote. Only 51% are registered. Compare that to young Protestants 78%, Jews 73%, Mormons 69%, Catholics 56% and the U.S. General Population 65%.

The Full Report of the survey has a lot more interesting information.

2 comments:

Liam said...

Interesting stuff. I read somewhere that before Bush and Cheney a much larger number of American Muslims were Republicans.

cowboyangel said...

That sounds familiar. I'm guessing that a fair number of those identifying themselves as Independents could be former Republicans.