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Don't know if the study took this into account--Utah salaries (and cost of living) are significantly lower than other parts of the country, so average family income may actually be higher for Latter-Day Saints than listed if normalized to the rest of the country.

Interesting post! I have a few comments, only tangentially related to your question.

But what happens when someone changes their RELIGION and suddenly finds themselves in a different social strata than they are accustomed to being with?

The economist Tyler Cowen suggested in passing a few years ago that converting to Mormonism signals an intention to change one's social class, at least in Latin America. I wonder how common that is in the US--do people convert to Judaism when they think they're socially climbing, or when they want to?

The table squares very much with my mission experience (I served in the US). I remember joking with companions that there were no poor Episcopalians, that it must be a country club religion for the wealthy. I think I only ever met one Episcopalian who lived in an apartment; most of them lived in giant houses, and most apartment dwellers were Baptists, or members of Assemblies of God, or of various spirit-filled nondenominational churches. The one entry that doesn't match my experience is for Methodists. My impression was that they were better off than this table suggests.

Regarding the income figures, I think they must be medians, particularly since they're for households (families). Means would be a lot higher, I suspect, because they would be pulled up by the few who make vast amounts of money.

If you regress family income on %college degrees, Mormons are by far the biggest outlier. Our model-predicted family income is $37K. I wonder why that is. Is it because we tend to be younger than members of other denominations, and a higher proportion of younger adults means a higher proportion of adults not done with school yet? But then that should affect the income level too, as students don't typically make a lot of money.

Perhaps an explanation for the high Mormon income is differential attrition. Being Mormon requires a lot of investment (I'm thinking in terms of time, but I guess it's also true of money) so people who have fewer resources in general--poorer people--are more likely to leave the Church. This would push up the median income for those of us remaining. Since our religion is still so new, and many (the majority?) of members are converts, perhaps those who leave the Church are also less likely to identify themselves as Mormon than people of other faiths. Catholicism is a good example: my impression is that some people continue to identify themselves as Catholic even if their family hasn't participated actively in church for years or even generations. I don't know, though. I guess all the things that apply to Mormonism--high investment, newness--also apply to Jehovah's Witnesses, and they have the lowest income of all, so perhaps this isn't a useful explanation.

I am a little surprised at how low the college degree percentage is for Mormons, we seem to emphasis education a lot.

I am also surprised by income level. We have perhaps the most extensive missionary program, and I have often felt that we tend to find the 'needy' at a pretty good clip.

The data is just for US religions--if the data included foreign countries I think the income mean would drop, as (my impression is) converts outside the US do tend to skew poorer. However for the US, I think we do better among the middle-class (which may have more to do with race than actual social class). I did not serve a state-side mission, though, so I could be way off...

I'm sure there are many factors involved.

I'd love to tease the data further to see what % of families from each faith group has more than one adult working outside the home. FAMILY income from two salaries compared to FAMILY income from a single salary sort of skews things, don't you think?

The other thing to consider is that in MOST faiths, members can pick whichever congregation they like, where ever they feel the most socially comfortable. LDS church is fairly unique in assigning where and with whom a person will attend based on geographical boundaries.

I think the rank and file membership of the church truly does try to be accepting of others and respectful regardless of differences. However I do know of one specific case of a seemingly "strong" member who had been in lots of powerful leadership positions who declined a visiting teaching assignment because she did not feel comfortable going to the home of someone who was in such a radically lower social position from her own.
I also know of a person who would not accept invitations to socials in the Bishop's home because she felt out of place, perceiving it as "too fancy for me". I also know of some folk who send their tithes and offerings directly to Salt Lake specifically because they were uncomfortable having their ward financial clerk see what their income was.

We know the Lord to be "no respecter of persons" but we live in a culture that screams lots of messages about "he with the most shiny things wins". All you have to do is look at the bankruptcy rates in Utah to know that LDS are not immune from living beyond their means to try to keep up with social pressure.

In some areas there is a perception that only the well-to-do members will be called for the more responsible callings regardless of the worthiness and willingness of those with more meager means. That certainly is not LDS policy, but it may be (to a greater or lesser degree) how things play out in some areas due to who people notice and feel comfortable around when considering names for positions.

Most people feel more comfortable associating on a day to day basis with others they feel they have some common ground with. Sure, there are plenty of exceptions to this, but as a rule young couples with a stay-at-home mom caring for a troop of little kids are more comfortable around others of similar circumstances than they are socializing with the DINKS (Double income, no kids).

There are plenty of us who would take a casserole to ANY person who got sick or help ANY person move or be nice to ANY person in our ward....but we still may become more reserved around those who we perceive as being in a very different social position from ourselves. How welcoming we are to investigators or new move ins can be influenced by this as well.

Because I've moved so much I've been in both very humble church units and more affluent ones. The difference is striking. I'd be interested to hear more about what others have experienced in regards to this.

We moved into ward that had been realigned recently adding 3 apartment complexes and the trailer park for the local horse track to the very affluent neighborhood around the hill. HT/VT were assigned geographically for the most part, if you lived in the apartments you had teachers from the apartments and if you lived in the residential homes your teachers came from the neighborhood. I heard it explained on more than one occasion why it was that way "who could ever find the right way through those apartment lots?" Sisters told me that they didn't want to invest in friendships with others who would "just up and move out soon anyway".

Our family had a medical crisis and the ward rallied around us, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It changed the way some people in the ward looked at others, I think. I know it changed the way we looked at them.

I'm looking at this article as data for a research paper I'm writing. The results collected don't particularly suprise me, to be frank.

I was wondering if you could suggest any related articles to read, or if there are more recent or more elaborate findings.

Sidda,

f you go to Google SCHOLAR (as opposed to the regular google) and put in Religion and Social Class you will find all sorts of things.

I'd be very interested to read your paper when you get it done! (Or even while it is a work in process) Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like to talk about this offline.