Global Religious Demographics

Global religious demographics over time

By Throwback Thursday [source]

About this dataset

The dataset contains information on a wide range of religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Baha'i Faith, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Syncretic Religions (religious practices that blend elements from multiple faiths), Animism (belief in spiritual beings in nature), Non-Religious individuals or those without any religious affiliation.

For each religion and region/country combination recorded in the dataset we have the following information:

• Total population: The total population of the region or country.
• Religious affiliation percentages: The percentages of the population that identify with specific religious affiliations.
• Subgroup populations/percentages: The populations or percentages within specific denominations or sects of each religion.

The dataset also provides additional variables like Year and State Name (for regional data) for further analysis.

How to use the dataset

• Understanding the Columns

  The dataset contains several columns with different categories of information. Here's a brief explanation of some important columns:

  • Year: The year in which the data was recorded.
  • Total Population: The total population of a country or region.
  • State Name (StateNme): The name of the state or region.

  Each religion has specific columns associated with it, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Shintoism etc., representing its percentage and population for each category/denomination within that religion.

• Selecting Specific Data

  If you are interested in exploring data related to a particular religion or geographic location:

  • To filter data by Religion: Identify relevant columns associated with that religion such as 'Christianity', 'Buddhism', 'Islam', etc., and extract their respective percentage and population values for analysis.

    Example: If you want to analyze Christianity specifically, extract columns related to Christianity like 'Christianity (Percent)', 'Christianity (Population)', etc.

    Note: There might be multiple columns related to a specific religion indicating different categories or denominations within that religion.

  • To filter data by Geographic Location: Utilize the 'State Name' column ('StateNme') to segregate data corresponding to different states/regions.

    Example: If you want to analyze religious demographics for a particular state/region like California or India:

    i) Filter out rows where State Name is equal to California or India.

    ii) Extract relevant columns associated with your selected religion as mentioned above.

• Finding Trends and Insights

  Once you have selected the specific data you are interested in, examine patterns and trends over time or across different regions.

  • Plotting data using visualizations: Use graphical tools such as line charts, bar charts, or pie charts to visualize how religious demographics have changed over the years or vary across different regions.

  • Analyzing population proportions: By comparing the percentage values of different religions for a given region or over time, you can gather insights into changes in religious diversity.

• Comparing Religions

  If you wish to compare multiple religions:

Research Ideas

• Comparing religious affiliations across different countries or regions: With data on various religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, etc., researchers can compare the religious affiliations of different countries or regions. This can help in understanding the cultural and religious diversity within different parts of the world.
• Exploring the growth or decline of specific religions: By examining population numbers for specific religions such as Jainism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, etc., this dataset can be used to investigate the growth or decline of these religious groups over time. Researchers can analyze factors contributing to their popularity or decline in particular regions or countries

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

See the dataset description for more information.

Columns

File: ThrowbackDataThursday 201912 - Religion.csv | Column name...

According to a 2022 survey, 31 percent of Americans never attend church or synagogue, compared to 20 percent of Americans who attend every week.

Religiosity in the United States

Despite only about a fifth of Americans attending church or synagogue on a weekly basis, almost 40 percent consider themselves to be very religious. Additionally, states in the Deep South such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana had the most residents identifying as very religious. In contrast, New England states like Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire had the most people identifying as nonreligious.

A Christian nation?

Despite the official separation of church and state embedded in the Constitution, many would still consider the United States to be a Christian nation. Catholicism has the largest number of adherents in the United States, due to there being many different Protestant denominations. The Southern Baptist Convention had the largest number of Evangelical adherents, while the United Methodist Church was the largest Mainline Protestant denomination.

In 2023, **** percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion. A further **** percent of Americans were White evangelical Protestants, and an additional **** percent were White mainline Protestants. Religious trends in the United States Although the United States is still home to the largest number of Christians worldwide, the nation has started to reflect a more diverse religious landscape in recent years. Americans now report a wide range of religious beliefs and backgrounds, in addition to an increasing number of people who are choosing to identify with no religion at all. Studies suggest that many Americans have left their previous religion to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, with many reasoning that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, that they didn't approve of negative teachings or treatment of LGBTQ+ people, or that their family was never that religious growing up. Christian controversies Over the last few years, controversies linked to Christian denominations have plagued the nation, including reports of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian churches have also been accused of supporting discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ people and people belonging to other religious groups. In addition, there have been increasing concerns about Christian nationalism, the political ideology that asserts that America was founded to be a Christian nation. Although the majority of Americans still think that declaring the United States a Christian nation would go against the U.S. Constitution, studies found that most Republicans would be in favor of this change.

The Statistics of Churches in the United States was part of the 11th Census, conducted in 1890 (the U.S. Census collected data on religion through the 1936 Census, though the 1890 Census was the first to count the number of members). The Census collected data on church seating capacity, property value, number of members, number of edifices ("buildings owned and used for worship"), and number of organizations (churches, mission stations when separate from congregation, chapels when they are separate from churches, and societies or meetings among groups that designate such organizations). The data are organized by states (states are the cases). Measures for religions in Indian Territories are also included.

Over the past decade, the share of the Swedish population who was a member of the Swedish Church decreased steadily from 70 percent in 2010 to 51 percent in 2024. This underlines the trend that religion is playing a smaller part in people's lives in Sweden. The Church of Sweden is the largest Christian church in Sweden and it was the state church between 1536 and 2000.

This graph shows the ratio of religious adherents to population in the United States in 2010, by state. In 2010, about 79 percent of Utah's population were adherents to a religion.

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This table contains 21 series, with data for years 1871 - 1971 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Unit of measure (1 items: Persons ...) Geography (1 items: Canada ...) Religious denominations (21 items: Total religious denominations; Baptist; Congregationalist; Anglican ...).

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the Church Point population distribution across 18 age groups. It lists the population in each age group along with the percentage population relative of the total population for Church Point. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of Church Point by age. For example, using this dataset, we can identify the largest age group in Church Point.

Key observations

The largest age group in Church Point, LA was for the group of age 60-64 years with a population of 575 (13.52%), according to the 2021 American Community Survey. At the same time, the smallest age group in Church Point, LA was the 80-84 years with a population of 30 (0.71%). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-Year Estimates.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-Year Estimates.

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group in consideration
• Population: The population for the specific age group in the Church Point is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the population of each age group as a proportion of Church Point total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

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The Statistics of Churches in the United States was part of the 11th Census, conducted in 1890 (the U.S. Census collected data on religion through the 1936 census, though the 1890 Census was the first to count the number of members). The Census collected data on church seating capacity, property value, number of members, number of edifices ("buildings owned and used for worship"), and number of organizations (churches, mission stations when separate from congregation, chapels when they are separate from churches, and societies or meetings among groups that designate such organizations). The data are organized by counties (counties are the cases). Measures for religions in Indian Territories are also included.

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In 2021, the county with the highest percentage of church members in Sweden was Norrbotten, where more than two thirds of the population were members of the Church of Sweden. By contrast, Stockholm had the lowest share of church members with less than half of the population being members of the Church.

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Religious Populations Worldwide

Religious Populations Worldwide by Year and Category

By Throwback Thursday [source]

About this dataset

The dataset includes data on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Baha'i Faith, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism and various other syncretic and animist religions. For each religion or denomination category, it provides both the total population count and the percentage representation in relation to the overall population.

Additionally, - Columns labeled with Population provide numeric values representing the total number of individuals belonging to a particular religion or denomination. - Columns labeled with Percent represent numerical values indicating the percentage of individuals belonging to a specific religion or denomination within a given population. - Columns that begin with ** indicate primary categories (e.g., Christianity), while columns that do not have this prefix refer to subcategories (e.g., Christianity - Roman Catholics).

In addition to providing precise data about specific religions or denominations globally throughout multiple years,this dataset also records information about geographical locations by including state or country names under StateNme.

This comprehensive dataset is valuable for researchers seeking information on global religious trends and can be used for analysis in fields such as sociology, anthropology studies cultural studies among others

How to use the dataset

Introduction:

• Understanding the Columns:

• Year: Represents the year in which the data was recorded.

• StateNme: Represents the name of the state or country for which data is recorded.

• Population: Represents the total population of individuals.

• Total Religious: Represents the total percentage and population of individuals who identify as religious, regardless of specific religion.

• Non Religious: Represents the percentage and population of individuals who identify as non-religious or atheists.

• Identifying Specific Religions: The dataset includes columns for different religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Each religion is further categorized into specific denominations or types within that religion (e.g., Roman Catholics within Christianity). You can find relevant information about these religions by focusing on specific columns related to each one.

• Analyzing Percentages vs. Population: Some columns provide percentages while others provide actual population numbers for each category. Depending on your analysis requirement, you can choose either column type for your calculations and comparisons.

• Accessing Historical Data: The dataset includes records from multiple years allowing you to analyze trends in religious populations over time. You can filter data based on specific years using Excel filters or programming languages like Python.

• Filtering Data by State/Country: If you are interested in understanding religious populations in a particular state or country, use filters to focus on that region's data only.

Example - Extracting Information:

Let's say you want to analyze Hinduism's growth globally from 2000 onwards:

• Identify Relevant Columns:
• Year: to filter data from 2000 onwards.

• Hindu - Total (Percent): to analyze the percentage of individuals identifying as Hindus globally.

• Filter Data:

• Set a filter on the Year column and select values greater than or equal to 2000.

• Look for rows where Hindu - Total (Percent) has values.

• Analyze Results: You can now visualize and calculate the growth of Hinduism worldwide after filtering out irrelevant data. Use statistical methods or graphical representations like line charts to understand trends over time.

Conclusion: This guide has provided you with an overview of how to use the Rel

Research Ideas

• Comparing religious populations across different countries: With data available for different states and countries, this dataset allows for comparisons of religious populations across regions. Researchers can analyze how different religions are distributed geographically and compare their percentages or total populations across various locations.
• Studying the impact of historical events on religious demographics: Since the dataset includes records categorized by year, it can be used to study how historical events such as wars, migration, or political changes have influenced religious demographics over time. By comparing population numbers before and after specific events, resea...

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