Developing and Archiving International Religion Data

Brian J. GrimRoger Finke

(Grim@psu.edu)

Pennsylvania State UniversityAssociation of Religion Data Archives

Starting in July, also in cooperation with the

Pew Research Center’s

Forum on Religion & Public Life

Washington, DC

Research supported by a grant from the

John Templeton Foundation

Situation

Religion, religiously-related values, and socio-religious conflict are important and growing forces in the world today:

- whether due to the irony of secularization- or due to an increasing supply of religious competition.

Problem

Demographic data on religion around the globe come from a limited number of sources, e.g., - Oxford’s World Christian Encyclopedia- CIA’s World Factbook

Religious values data are limited, e.g.,- World Values Survey- Global Attitudes Project (Pew)

“Solutions”

Collect more religion-specific data, e.g., - Pew’s current 9-country Pentecostalism poll

Centralize data from existing sources, e.g.,- WVS, GAP, WCD, etc. (incl. aggregate database) - Other sources (see handout)

Innovatively generate new data, e.g., coding:- International Religious Freedom (IRF) Reports

State Dept. IRF Reports (annual)

Coding of IRF Reports

Indicators of Data’s Validity

… where the law and/or constitution provide for freedom of religion.

… where the state does not defer to religious authorities on life-course issues.

The number of countries =

173

150

… where established or existing religions try to shut out other religions.

… where people are discriminated against based on religious identity or activity.

The number of countries =

98

125

… where a government bureau supervises religious affairs.

… where there is religious violence.

The number of countries =

81

104

… where there are religious tensions reported.

The number of countries =

143

= 73% of countriesWorld

AverageAfrica East Asia Europe/

EurasiaNear East & N Africa

South Asia

Western Hemisph.

73% 72% 74% 77% 95% 88% 53%

Conclusions

Religion can and must be better understood.

A specific focus on empirical socio-religious data is needed.

These data must be archived and made available to multiple audiences:

- researchers - educators - the press - policy-makers

www.TheARDA.com