New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OrphanCrow

  polish: another question : among the college graduated witnesses, how many have used these years to learn to think by themselves? How many have taken a real benefit of this high education?
  I know several young college graduated witnesses who hare absolutely uable to thing by themselves and only repeat what other (and uneducated people) have taught them!
  So it's often a waste of time, for a well indocrinated witness to go to college!

  Yeah...the old saying of leading a horse to water...

  A few years ago, I had an encounter with a young JW woman. She spotted me walking and actually pulled her shiny new car over on the street, got out and approached this "derlelict" (me) walking (poor thing) and dressed in scarves, mitts, Army jacket (it was f***ing cold...I always dress for the weather).

  Anyways, I decided to engage her and challenged her on the WT's stance against education (she was shocked...a derelict that can talk? and reason? and is educated???). Her response was interesting.

  "Oh, but the WT doesn't forbid higher education. I have been to university!"

  "Oh? Really? What is your degree in?"

  "Physiotherapy. I have a four year degree. When Jehobah cleans up this earth, which will be soon, he will need people who can heal and work in medicine. Perfection of the body will come slowly and with the help of people like me."

  That conversation went well. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
• 

  shepherdless

  Further to Vidiot and DJS, I have wondered myself in the past whether the issue is whether low education is due to the cult or vica versa. IMO a desire for educational achievement is at least partially cultural, and the JW culture in relation to education is about as negative as it can get. However, I sense that the cult is a bit of a haven for those who want to hide. So my 2c worth: I think it is a bit of both.

  Back to the original topic, here is a table I extracted from the 2011 census in relation to how JW's fare against other Australians in terms of education:

  
  This is raw data I extracted directly from the ABS database a while ago. It doesn't compare JW's against other religions, but shows they are pretty poor on the academic front, compared to the average.
  I will make some other posts in relation to Aust census data. I have a fair bit of info, but not in easily presentable form.
• 

  shepherdless

  SBF - [The book author]...says that getting access to the more detailed information in census returns can be tricky even for academics, and expensive. It should be possible to get the figures for earlier censuses and track JW education over time. But it might cost to access the information and the information might be difficult to extract.

  
  

  A couple of years ago, I got passwords for the 2006 and 2011 census databases. (All legit.) This was before I joined this forum. I downloaded a fair bit of data, but it is a more complicated task than it sounds, for reasons I wont go into. (It is probably expensive, because it is time consuming, and will do your head in.)

  I had planned to do it again once the 2016 census data was available, and produce a comprehensive report on the status of the cult in Aust, but I am not sure I will be able to. Given this thread, I will add a few snippets of what I have, even though it is old data (2006 and 2011). I will do so in subsequent posts.
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  bohm

  Here is the central table for those interested

  
  
• 

  shepherdless

  Median ages in Australia. In the 5 year period from 2006 to 2011, JW's median age went up 2.3 years, whilst the median age of the rest of Aust went up 0.2 years. Data summary of Median ages:

  Aust 2006: 36.5 yrs

  JW 2006: 38.1 yrs

  Aust 2011: 36.7 yrs

  JW 2011: 40.4 yrs

  Note, these median ages were manually calculated by me. The last decimal place might be slightly out.

  Marital Status - here is a table for 2011 that is hopefully self explanatory:

  

  I have some other data that I am not going to tabulate. Instead I will summarise in words. JW's have pretty much the same internet access as everyone else. They are evenly distributed across urban and rural areas and across the country (unlike, say Mormans that are more prominent in urban areas and on the East coast). The percentage of JW's born overseas is roughly the same as Australians in general. If anything, JW's are slightly more likely to be born in Aust.
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  bohm

  2006:

  
  
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  bohm

  

  
  
• 

  shepherdless

  Here is a sheet (2011 census) showing how badly JW's compare to the Aust population in terms of income:

  

  

  I have some more data, including something very interesting, abd probably the most important info of all. I may not be able to upload it until tomorrow, however.
• 

  shepherdless

  Just some other minor info:

  I haven't provided the data on age and sex for JW's as yet. As most of you know, it is lop-sided. You might be surprised to know the equivalent for the Mormons (Aust census):

  2006:

  Male: 25,070

  Female: 28,129

  Total: 53,199

  2011:

  Male: 28,311

  Female: 31,458

  Total: 59,769

  For the Scientologists:

  2006:

  Male: 1,522

  Female: 984

  Total: 2,506

  2011:

  Male: 1,273

  Female: 890

  Total: 2,163

  (Yes, Scientologists seem to be disappearing.)

  So sheilas, if you wanted to pick up a bloke, you really chose the wrong cult!
• 

  slimboyfat

  Thanks shepherdless. The information about the average age of JWs getting older is very interesting because increasing average ages of religious believers are strongly correlated with decline.

  And an increase in average age of 2.3 years after only 5 years is pretty huge.

  Having said that, the average age of severely declining churches in the UK such as the Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians tends to be in the 50s or older.