[ResourceShelf] Newsletter 438

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Gary Price

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Jan 14, 2010, 9:12:19 AM1/14/10

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Off the Shelf: ResourceShelf Newsletter
<http://www.resourceshelf.com/>

Number 438 January 14, 2010

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Greetings from St. Pete/Tampa, where it's still ridiculously
cold...and my friends and colleagues are walking around looking like
vagrants because almost no one here has decent winter clothes.

We're big on authoritative sources of statistics here at
ResourceShelf. Someone is always looking for 'the latest numbers' on
something, so we try to post good fishing holes whenever we find them.

This week, we have amassed a collection of statistics sources related
to religion. For most of us, this tends to be the kind of information
we don't use regularly, but when we need it...we REALLY need it. We
welcome your suggestions for others sites we should add to this
collection.

And, as always, if you have suggestions to offer for future Resources
of the Week, send 'em along.

For those of you in the northern hemisphere -- stay warm!

sdk

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++ Your DocuTicker and ResourceShelf Editorial Team ++

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Resource of the Week: Religion...by the Numbers By Shirl Kennedy,
Senior Editor

Direct link to this post online: http://digbig.com/5baxmr

A few weeks ago for The Day Job, I was rummaging around in my
Delicious bookmarks for sites offering statistics related to religion.
I'd saved a few, but I decided to go looking for more...and then I
organized them...and now I am sharing them with you.

If you are aware of any other sites I should add to this list -
especially for non-Western/non-mainstream religions - please let me
know.

Meta Sites

* 2010 U.S. Statistical Abstract: Religion Three tables:

* Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population
* Religious Bodies-Selected Data
* Christian Church Adherents and Jewish Population, States

* Adherents.com

Adherents.com is a growing collection of over 43,870 adherent
statistics and religious geography citations: references to
published membership/adherent statistics and congregation
statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations,
religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements,
ultimate concerns, etc.

* American Religious Identification Survey 2008 (Trinity College)
Statistics sliced and diced in many ways. Notable here: American
Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population

* Association of Religion Data Archives

Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997 and going
online in 1998, the initial archive was targeted at researchers
interested in American religion. The targeted audience and the
data collection have both greatly expanded since 1998, now
including American and international collections and developing
features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and
researchers. Data included in the ARDA are submitted by the
foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world.

* Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies: Statistics
Currently offers 'Standard Denominational Adherents
Information for 2007'.

* Association of Theological Schools/Commission on Accrediting: Annual
Data Tables/FactBooks

The Fact Book on Theological Education has been published annually
since 1969 until 2002 when it and the Annual Data Tables became
two separate publications. The Fact Book (changed to a biennial
publication on odd years), offers an executive summary of the data
provided by the member schools in the fall of the previous
academic year.

Designed as a concise overview of graduate, professional
theological education in the approximately 250 member schools of
ATS, the Fact Book includes a topical essay and a table of
significant institutional characteristics of each member
institution. Figures in the Fact Book reference the Annual Data
Table from which the calculation was made.

Barna Group

Barna Research Group provides primary research services to
organizations focused on enhancing people�s spiritual lives. It
conducts qualitative and quantitative research on a commissioned
basis, as well as developing self-initiated studies of the
spiritual landscape of the nation. The company has worked with
thousands of ministries across the country and is widely relied
upon by media, churches and educational institutions for insight
into matters of faith and contemporary society.

Most of what's here costs money, but the press releases often contain
useful statistics, and they have an online form for media requests:
http://www.barna.org/media-requests

* Center for the Study of Global Christianity (Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary): World Christian Database

The World Christian Database (WCD) is based on the 2600-page
award-winning World Christian Encyclopedia and World Christian
Trends, first published in 1982 and revised in 2001. This
extensive work on World religion is now completely updated and
integrated into the WCD online database. Designed for both the
casual user and research scholar, information is readily available
on religious activities, growth rates, religious literature,
worker activity, and demographic statistics.

Note that this is a subscription database. 'Free subscriptions are
available to major media organizations only.'

* CIA World Factbook Offers religious breakdowns of the population by
country; also for the world as a whole:

Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%, Protestants
5.78%, Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%), Muslims 21.01%, Hindus
13.26%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.35%, Jews 0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%,
other religions 11.78%, non-religious 11.77%, atheists 2.32% (2007
est.)

Country information is continually updated.

* Foreign Policy: The List - The World's Fastest-Growing Religions
(May 2007)

From Muslims in Europe to evangelical Christians in Africa, it is
religious believers who are shaping the early 21st Century.
Charismatic movements are sweeping throughout the Southern
Hemisphere, while high birth rates among immigrants are provoking
soul-seeking in the historically Christian West. For this List, FP
looks at the fast-growing faiths that are upending the old world
order.

Includes statistics on Islam, the Bah'ai faith, Sikhism, Jainism,
Hinduism, Christianity.

* Gallup: Religion Ongoing polls on religion-related issues.

* Glenmary Research Center

The mission of the GRC is to place meaningful information in the
hands of its constituents. We disseminate this research in three
primary formats: books, maps (learn more about Glenmary's mapping
heritage) and data files.

Self-identifies as 'Catholic society of priests and brothers' involved
in missionary work as well as research. Much of the info here costs
money, but there are some free data files and maps.

* Hartford Institute for Religious Research

Research is at the heart of what we do - gathering reliable
information about what is happening in religious life today.
Groundbreaking studies on the movement of women into the role of
clergy and timely assessment of trends in church membership are
two of the many ways in which we seek to measure how people of
faith are forming and re-forming their institutions. Changes in
theological seminaries and in national denominational structures
have received the Hartford Institute's careful attention, as have
the dynamics and community contributions of congregations.
Institute personnel and projects have pioneered methods for the
study of congregations, including a national multi-faith survey
that is gathering unprecedented, comprehensive data on the
nation's congregations.

See: Research page. Don't miss: Database of Megachurches in the U.S.
Also: Religion Data Resources

* Institute for the Study of Religion (Baylor)

ISR exists to initiate, support, and conduct research on religion,
involving scholars and projects spanning the intellectual
spectrum: history, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology,
political science, epidemiology, theology, and religious studies.

Offers nice collection of (free) reports.

* Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion: Estimating the
Religious Composition of All Nations (PDF; paper, December 2008)

The international religious data in the World Christian Database
(WCD), and its print predecessor, the World Christian Encyclopedia
(WCE), have been used frequently in academic studies and the
popular press. While scholars have raised questions about the
WCD's estimation, categories, and potential bias, the data have
not yet been systematically assessed. We test the reliability of
the WCD by comparing its religious composition estimates to four
other data sources (World Values Survey, Pew Global Assessment
Project, CIA World Factbook, and the U.S. Department of State),
finding that estimates are highly correlated. In comparing the WCD
estimates for Islamic countries and American Christian adherents
with local data sources, we identify specific groups for which
estimates differ. In addition, we discuss countries where the data
sets provide inconsistent religious estimates. Religious
composition estimates in the World Christian Database are
generally plausible and consistent with other data sets. The World
Christian Database also includes comprehensive non-religious data.
We conclude with recommendations regarding the use of the WCD in
future analysis.

* National Congregations Survey (Duke)

The National Congregations Study surveys a representative sample
of America's churches, synagogues, mosques and other local places
of worship. It gathers information about a wide range of
characteristics and activities of congregations.