CHURCH STATS

Why is it difficult to measure religion?

wide variety of religiosity

have to be alrge scale to be representative

sects/cults may be secretive

range of beliefs

how do we define religion?

may practice religion in private sphere

How can data be collected?

census

church census

surveys

data held by religious organisations themselves

What are the issues with the census?

census may ask people to note their religion - likely the head of the household who might note the rligion of all members (this may be inaccurate)

What is evidence of the census not being taken seriously?

in 2001, 390,000 BRITS DECLARED THEMSELVES TO BE JEDI KNIGHTS, making it the fourth largest ‘religion’ in the Uk after Christianity, Islam and Judiasm, beating Sikhism, Judaism ans Buddhism

What is the issue with the Church census data?

it looks at who is attending church ona given date, not giving a complete picture as the cenusus may have been artificially inflated, not all religious organisations are likely to be involved, people may not believe or belong or attned for reasons other than religious belief

What is the issue with defining religion when it comes to attendance?

if the definition is broad enough to include some of the NAMs and cults, its not even quite clear what ‘attendence’ would mean in some cases

What is religious belief?

whether people believe in a religion or hold a religious faith

What is religioisity?

extent to which they participated in religious activities

Why may people attend church outside of religion?

social aspects

What is the issue with religion in western democracies?

the percentage of people claiming to belong to a particular religion is much higher than the numbers who regularly practice their faith

What happens if you ask people about their religious faith?

they are much more likely to report that they have a religious belief

Why do religoous organisations impact the data?

likely to inflate their membership in order to retain the umpression they are significant social institutioms

What percentage of people where christian in 2011 vs 2021?

59.3 vs 46.2

What percentage of people where other religions in 2011 vs 2021?

0.4 vs 0.6

What percentage of people where non religious in 2011 vs 2021?

25.2 vs 37.2

What percentage of people where muslim in 2011 vs 2021?

4.9 vs 6.5

What percentage of people where buddhist in 2011 vs 2021?

0.4 vs 0.5

What percentage of people where hindu in 2011 vs 2021?

1.5 vs 1.7

What percentage of people where Jewish in 2011 vs 2021?

0.5 vs 0.5

What percentage of people where Sikh in 2011 vs 2021?

0.8 vs 0.9