Facebook Knows Who You're Going To Marry Based On Your Religion

Valentine's Day is a mere 72 hours away, so here's a fun fact: Jedis (who practice Jediism, based on the teachings of the Jedi Knights in the "Star Wars" movies) have an above average likelihood of marrying another jedi, compared to everyone else.

This comes from a study by Facebook's Data Science unit. According to Quartz, the social network is currently "focusing their all-seeing gaze on the world of romance and, in the first installment, how it intersects with religion."

All different kinds of religion, even ones based in Star Wars theology.

Here's what they found: people are less likely to date or eventually marry people who are of a different religion - even in some of the world's most religiously diverse countries.

Quartz reports:

The United Kingdom is 40% Protestant, 17% Catholic, 15% atheist and 11% Muslim: if religion played no role, the odds suggest that only about one in five relationships would be between people of the same religion. The actual figure is 73%. In even more religiously diverse countries like Singapore and Taiwan, more than 90% of people are in relationships with people they might meet at their mosque, temple, or church.

But in the USA, for example, Mormons and Sikhs are the most likely to stay within their religions, which makes up about 90% of relationships within those groups.

Jews, however, are more likely to date and marry outside their faith, despite the fact that they make up a larger part of the population.

Here is the chart (below) from Facebook showing the fraction of current relationships between two people of the same religion. While jedis are more likely to marry each other than the average person, they're still the least likely of all the religions to find another jedi to wed: