# Southerners and the Baptist Religion.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 8, 2019, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552 "2019-12-08T08:47:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552/41 "2019-12-10T19:29:00Z")

</div>

> [@RioRico](#):
>
> Back to demographics. Does anyone have numbers on the economic status of various Southern denominations? Which denominations tend to be richest and poorest?

I’ll poke through Pew, but I imagine Episcopalians are among the richest.

> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> And in more rural areas you’ll find a lot of yahoos with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks, which I never understood. It’s like dude, you remember why we became a state, right?

You can find Confederate flags **everywhere**. Including [Sweden for some reason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raggare).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552/42 "2019-12-10T19:59:31Z")

</div>

> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> I’ll poke through Pew, but I imagine Episcopalians are among the richest.

I did so, and can’t find a more affluent Christian group. Only greater are Jewish and Hindu (latter same percentage of \>$100k, more $50k to $100k)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552/43 "2019-12-10T21:09:17Z")

</div>

> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> I’ll poke through Pew, but I imagine Episcopalians are among the richest.

But the Presbyterians are better educated…

(WAG. don’t see the numbers)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552/44 "2019-12-10T21:29:54Z")

</div>

> [@Melbourne](#):
>
> But the Presbyterians are better educated…
> 
> (WAG. don’t see the numbers)

For the southern US, by denomination or group, the percent that are college grads, according to the Pew study:

- Mainline Protestants: 36%  
— Presbyterians: 56%  
— Methodists: 39%  
— Lutherans: 39%  
— Episcopalians aren’t broken out (sample size is too small)

- Evangelical Protestants: 21%  
— Baptists: 19%

So, good guess on your part.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken_1)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552/45 "2019-12-11T17:22:37Z")

</div>

“They’re sixteen and they got a car. Somebody said they were both going to be Church of God preachers because you don’t have to know nothing to be one.”

‘A Temple of the Holy Ghost’

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552/46 "2019-12-11T18:57:48Z")

</div>

> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> For the southern US, by denomination or group, the percent that are college grads, according to the Pew study:
> 
> - Mainline Protestants: 36%  
> — Presbyterians: 56%  
> — Methodists: 39%  
> — Lutherans: 39%  
> — Episcopalians aren’t broken out (sample size is too small)
> 
> - Evangelical Protestants: 21%  
> — Baptists: 19%
> 
> So, good guess on your part.

You can click through and it has the info, in order of 1) \<= high school, 2) some college 3) college, 4) post graduate:  
Episcopalians 16/29/31/25%  
(Mainline) Presbyterians 27/27/25/21%

Or for graduating college, 56% vs. 46%. So Episcopalians have more education, but that doesn’t mean that Presbyterians are slouches.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-the-baptist-religion/844552.md?page=2)