Religion & Education

(Sources: Qualifications: Annual Population Survey, January 2004 to December 2004, Office for National Statistics Schools: Annual Schools Census, January 2004, Department for Education and Skills Number of children: Census, April 2001, Office for National Statistics)

• In 2004 a third (33%) of Muslims of working age in Great Britain had no qualifications - the highest proportion for any religious group. They were also the least likely to have degrees or equivalent qualifications (12%).
  
  
• After Muslims, Sikhs are the next most likely to have no qualifications (20%). 17% of Buddhists and a similar proportion of Christians (15%), Hindus (15%) and people with no religion (14%) had no qualifications. Jews were the least likely to have no qualifications (7%).
  
  
• Jews, Buddhists and Hindus were more likely than other groups to hold a degree. About four in ten Jews (44%) and three in ten Buddhists (30%) and Hindus (29%) held a degree compared with 22% of people with no religion, 20% of Sikhs and 16% of Christians.
  
  
• In January 2004 there were almost 7,000 state-maintained faith schools in England, making up 36% of primary and 17% of secondary schools. The overwhelming majority of these faith schools (99%) were Christian. Christian schools had places for 1.7 million children.
  
  
• There were 371,000 school-aged (5 to 16 year old) Muslim children in England in 2001 and four Muslim state-maintained schools in 2004, catering for around 1,100 children.
  
  
• There were 33,000 Jewish school-aged children in England compared with 13,000 places in state-maintained Jewish schools.