Modeling Religion Variables on Self-Perceived Social Class: Evidence from the 7th Wave of the World Values Survey, 2017–2020

In the literature, although social class is considered important in all aspects of life, its relation to religion has not been adequately researched. In this respect, the purpose of this paper is to explore how religious values, beliefs and practices are impacting social class perceptions as measured in the World Values Survey (WVS) questionnaire that classifies respondents into five class categories: upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, working and lower class. The analysis is based on the 2017–2020 7th wave WVS datasets for six countries: Brazil, Canada, Germany, Greece, Turkey and the United States. First, at country level, each of the five social class categories was modeled separately using linear probability models. The variables included in these analyses decided the common model that was used so as to allow for comparisons cross-nationally and among social class categories. The main findings of the regression analyses showed that respondents in all six countries differentiated in their social class perceptions according to their beliefs on the outcome of the science-religion conflict, the acceptance of one’s religion, religious services attendance, praying frequency, identifying oneself as religious and the basic meaning of religion. Certainly, within each country, social class perceptions differed. This study shows that, although religious values, beliefs and practices have an impact on social class identification, in future research additional social indicators should be considered so as to provide a more coherent interpretation.