Educational distribution among adults who say their holy scripture is the word of God but should not be taken literally by religious denomination (2014) Switch to: Religious denomination among adults who say their holy scripture is the word of God but should not be taken literally by educational group

% of adults who say their holy scripture is the word of God but should not be taken literally who have completed…

Religious denominationHigh school or lessSome collegeCollegePost-graduate degreeSample size
American Baptist Churches USA45%35%11%8%132
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints20%42%27%12%353
Churches of Christ41%38%11%10%162
Episcopal Church14%37%28%21%159
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)29%36%21%14%280
Independent Baptist (Evangelical Trad.)43%41%12%4%214
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod35%38%13%14%176
National Baptist Convention38%30%20%12%100
Nondenominational evangelical28%32%25%16%236
Nothing in particular (religion important)58%32%7%3%467
Nothing in particular (religion not important)56%29%9%6%209
Presbyterian Church (USA)19%28%27%27%171
Southern Baptist Convention41%35%16%8%428
United Methodist Church29%33%23%15%684
Sample sizes and margins of error vary from subgroup to subgroup, from year to year and from state to state. You can see the sample size for the estimates in this chart on rollover or in the last column of the table. And visit this table to see approximate margins of error for a group of a given size. Readers should always bear in mind the approximate margin of error for the group they are examining when making comparisons with other groups or assessing the significance of trends over time. For full question wording, see the survey questionnaire.

Learn More: High school or less, Some college, College, Post-graduate degree