There is growing evidence linking religiosity to income inequality, according to a recent Christianity Today article by Tobin Grant. Whereas religion has been on the wane in most developed countries, there is still a very high degree of religiosity in the United States, and this may be in part attributable to the much higher income inequality which exists there when compared with other developed countries.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the top five countries in the world for income inequality (those with the highest Gini Index) are Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Sierra Leone. The bottom five countries out of the 136 countries listed – those with the most equal levels of income – are Sweden, Hungary, Norway, Serbia and Luxembourg. The United States is ranked 36th most unequal country in the world, just below Philippines, Uganda and Jamaica, and just above Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire and Iran.
Within the United States, states which have high income inequality tend to be more religious, whereas states with more equal incomes tend to be less religious. Interestingly, the statistics seem to show that it is the wealthy – not the poor – who become more religious as inequality increases. Religions that thrive in unequal societies are likely to be ones that appeal to the wealthy.