Are religious Americans more careful with money?  Dan Hess, at
Seattle Pacific University, has looked at whether US cities with
more religious people also tend to have fewer people getting
into debt trouble.  He analysed data from 120 "Metropolitan
Statistical Areas" - places with an average population of 1.7
million. You can see a least of the top 10 most religious, and
top 10 least religious, in the box.  Overall, more religious
metropolitan areas also had better credit scores, fewer
foreclosures (by around two-thirds) and fewer bankruptcies (by
around 50%).  These were all significant even after adjusting
for other local factors, such as the total population of the
area, average income, education, age, and the proportion of
ethnic minorities. Hess even adjusted for the percentage of
Republican voters in the area.  Hess puts this down to a direct
and indirect effects.  Firstly , he proposes a direct effect,
saying that:  Christian and Islamic scriptures espouse prudence
and speak against carrying debt. For