I don't get people some times.  It's been proven true, what's to believe in?

One of the reasons why I do not like statistics is because it is hard to know what they are actually saying. For example, Michael Shermer has a similar set of statistics that correlates acceptance of evolution with age. His stats demonstrate how people tend to cast off bad ideas as they get older and presumably gain more knowledge.

Now the above set that goes by education level is saying something that could be related as there is some correlation between age and level of education. Granted, there are people who get doctorates in their 20's and old people with little real education. Even so, it might be interesting to see if older people with less formal education but still significant practical learning are more likely to accept evolution.

Also, I notice that the survey is (as many surveys that purport to show something meaningful do) based on a sample of just over 1,000 people. Now granted, it would be impractical and expensive to survey many millions of people for every single question. However, it is well known that small samples tend to distort data in odd ways.

Be it acceptance of science or presidential approval ratings, these surveys are almost always based on a sample of slightly over 1,000 respondents. Heck but as little as a week before a presidential election one can always find some survey that will appear to run opposite to what the results a week later will finally turn out to be. Presumably, by a week before the general election, enough people have figured out who they want to vote for that a large enough sample size should produce decent results.

I think a lot of the problem we have with surveys is that most people misunderstand what they mean.  This survey doesn't attempt to prove that 39% of Americans believe in evolution.  It demonstrates that there's good data to indicate that within limits, this is a representative sample of the American public.

I would guess that in my college town, as much as perhaps 50 or 55% of the educated population understand and accept evolution.  I'd also guess that if I drove thirty minutes out of town, the number would probably drop to around 25%, based on exactly where I decided to stop.

You raise some good questions, and I'm sure that if larger, more detailed surveys were done, we'd learn some of the probable answers.  Still, just because this survey is small and broad, it isn't worthless.  It does illustrate clearly that there are a LOT of people who don't accept evolution.

The more I think about it, the more I don't like the use of the word "believe" in this context. If the survey question was: "Do you believe in the theory of evolution?", then I think it was a bad survey. A theory isn't really something you believe in, it's something you understand or you don't.

Asking the question with the word "believe" instead of "understand" makes it more loaded than it should be.

I couldn't agree more. I have not seen many larger samples either. Regardless of how much effort is put into getting a random sample, one cannot ensure that the sample is in fact random. For all anyone knows, all the participants may have been from a single state. Or small towns. Or cities. Or a crazy number of other possible groups that would completely nullify the sample altogether. And noone would ever know. While I see them like anyone else does, I tend to take them with a few grains of salt.

Geography can make huge differences on surveys like this. If you asked 1,000 people in Southern California, you’d get an entirely different result than if you asked 1,000 people in Southern Georgia.