According to the book of Numbers in the Old Testament of the Bible, one year after Moses led the Israelites from Egypt during the Exodus, the number of men aged 20 years or older and available to serve in the Israelites' army totalled at 603,550 men. This census was conducted by Moses and the leaders of the 12 Tribes of Israel, with the clan of Judah contributing the largest number of men. However, only 11 of the 12 Tribes were counted, as the men of the Levites were tasked with protecting the tabernacle, which was the central mneeting and worshipping tent of the Israelitres' nomadic society during the Exodus.

The aim of the project was to assess afresh the current number and frequency of people attending church of all denomonations in Scotland in 1994. A previous study had been undertaken in 1984 (held at the UKDA under SN 2554), and it was felt important to see how trends had changed. In particular, the principal investigators wanted to know how attendance had developed especially with regard to the age of those going to church. The survey also asked questions about the Bible version used in the church and whether churches had Bible study meetings.

To ascertain the numbers going to church regularly in Scotland, their trend, by geographical area and denomination, their age/sex, and the Bible version used in churches.

Comprehensive demographic dataset for Bible Grove, Louisville, IL, US including population statistics, household income, housing units, education levels, employment data, and transportation with year-over-year changes.

The English Church Census, 2005 followed-up from English Church Census, 1989 (available from the UKDA under SN 2842). The project surveyed each of the 37,000 churches in England and the response rate was 50 percent. The main form was completed by someone in authority and provides key characteristics of the church, its leadership, the congregation (size and frequency of attendance, age, ethnicity), ethos ('churchmanship' or theology), midweek activities, community service and so on. A very brief, anonymous form was also given to each person attending on census day asking for gender, broad age category and frequency of attendance. The counts obtained from these slips were recorded for each church, but no individual-level data are held.

The English Church Census, 2005 had a two-fold aim:

• to provide the best information available on the extent of religious activity by Christians in England
• to make progress in answering a number of important questions about contemporary religious practice

The aim of the study was to ascertain the number and frequency of people attending church of all denominations in Scotland in 2002. Several denominational changes had taken place in Scotland since the last census in 1994 (SN 4395) and 1984 (SN 2554). Political changes, with the formation of the Scottish Parliament, had brought about boundary changes for many councils, by which church attendance was previously analysed. A combination of denomination, political and population change had necessitated a revision of church attendance. In particular the study was to evaluate if the age structure of churchgoers had altered over the past decade and to establish if the trend in decline in the number of young people attending Sunday worship in England was true of Scotland.

The 1989 English Church Census (SN:2842) found there had been a drastic drop in those, aged 15-19, attending the English church in the 1980's. The aim was to discover why they had left and what, if anything, could be done about it. A key finding was the importance of having people in church who understood teenagers, their values and their language.

In order to gauge the views of a wide range of teenage church attenders the sample of church teenagers was structured by denomination, churchmanship, environment and area. The denomination and churchmanship categories were based on an analysis of current teenage church attendance from the English Church Census. Churches were sampled in three areas (the North, South and London). Within these areas churches were sampled in four environments (city centre, suburb, council estate and rural).

Teenagers who were not regular churchgoers were contacted through secondary schools. Schools which agreed to take part in the survey were clustered in geographical areas close to responding churches.