Research: SO250: Introduction to the Sociology of Religion: Data, Statistics, Mapping &amp; Public Opinion Sources

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Data, Statistics, Mapping, & Public Opinion Sources

Pew Research Center, 5 July 2022

Religion Data, Statistics & Surveys

U.S. Religion Census The U.S. Religion Census is your source for religious data at the county level. It reports the number of congregations in every U.S. county and equivalents for participating faith groups
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The U.S. Religion Census was originally conducted by the U.S. government in five special reports from 1890 through 1936. In 1952, the National Council of Churches organized its own religion census, which was repeated in 1971 and 1980 with strong support from Glenmary Research Center.
Since 1990, this decadal census has been conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Coverage now includes many non-Christian groups as well as special counts for religious traditions that do not have central data collection points, such as non-denominational churches or Muslim and Jewish communities.
Censuses of Religious Bodies, 1906-1936 (ICPSR 8) This data collection provides county- and state-level information on the number of members of a variety of religious organizations and groups in the United States between 1906 and 1936.
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he variables in this collection provide the names of these groups and organizations, which include the Advent Christian Church, Southern and National Convention Baptist churches, Buddhist (Japanese) temples, Evangelical Association, Jewish congregations, Greek Orthodox Church, Mennonite Church, Friends Church, Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, Polish National Church, Roman Catholic Church, Salvation Army, Seventh Day Adventist, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, Mennonite General Conference, Hungarian Reformed Church, Unitarian Church, Negro Baptist Church, and Evangelical Church.
The Association of Religion Data Archives (The ARDA) The ARDA Data Archive is a collection of surveys, polls, and other data submitted by researchers and made available online by the ARDA.
Government Religious Preference Dataset (The ARDA) The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations in 200+ countries. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset.
National Congregations Study The National Congregations Study surveys a representative sample of America's churches, synagogues, mosques and other local places of worship. The NCS is based on in-depth interviews with congregational leaders in 1998, 2006-07, 2012, and 2018-19. It gathers information about worship, programs, staffing, community activities, demographics, and many other characteristics of American congregations.
PPRI Data Vault After an embargo period of one year, most PRRI surveys are made available to the public for secondary analysis.
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PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy.
Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life: Data & Resources Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life survey datasets are posted on the Web as quickly as possible after all reporting is complete.
10 facts about religion and government in the United States (Pew Research Center) Pew Research Center surveys in recent years have shown that far more Americans support than oppose the separation of church and state, although there sometimes are divisions on these questions by political identity and religious affiliation. Here are 10 facts about some of the connections between religion and government in the U.S. – and the public’s current views on the matter – based on previously published analyses by the Center.
Religious Landscape Study (Pew Research Center) The RLS surveys more than 35,000 Americans from all 50 states about their religious affiliations, beliefs and practices, and social and political views.
Pew Research Center Religion & Public Life: Datasets This page is organized by survey, where each dataset is identified by the name of the survey, and below each dataset are links to the reports released from that data. In some cases, reports draw from multiple datasets.
In U.S., Far More Support Than Oppose Separation of Church and State (Pew Research Center) Key findings of a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 1-7, 2021, among 12,055 U.S. adults on the Center’s online, nationally representative American Trends Panel (ATP). These questions about the relationship between church and state can be combined into a scale that sorts respondents into one of four categories – “Church-state integrationists” (who say they would favor the intermingling of religion with government and public life); “church-state
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separationists” (who favor a wall of separation between religion and state); those who express “mixed” views about these matters; and those who largely express no opinion. When the questions are scaled together this way, they show there is far more support for church-state separation than for church-state integration in the U.S. public at large.
Frequently Requested Church Statistics (CARA, Georgetown University) CARA gets many inquiries from Church agencies and the media about the numbers for vocations, seminary enrollments, priests and vowed religious, parishes, Mass attendance, schools and the Catholic population. Below are some comparative statistics from 1970.

World Christian Database This link opens in a new window Provided detailed statistics on religious activities, growth rates, religious literature, worker activity, and demography for Christian denominations and other world religions. Additional secular data is included on population, health, education, languages, and communication in cities and regions of the world.
World Religion Database This link opens in a new window The World Religion Database contains detailed statistics on religious affiliation for every country of the world. It provides source material, including censuses and surveys, as well as best estimates for every religion for the period 1900 to 2050.

The Berman Jewish Databank The Berman Jewish DataBank provides access to hundreds of quantitative studies of North American and global Jewry.

General Public Opinion

Roper Center Public Opinion Archives This link opens in a new window The Roper Center is a public opinion archive that preserves the data from polls conducted by many leading survey organizations. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented. The iPOLL databank offers access to nearly half a million survey questions and answers asked in the U.S. by more than 150 survey organizations. Direct links are given to study documentation and datasets. Date coverage: 1930s – present.

Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions.
World Values Survey The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project’s goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies.
General Social Survey, "For more than four decades, the General Social Survey (GSS) has studied the growing complexity of American society. It is the only full-probability, personal-interview survey designed to monitor changes in both social characteristics and attitudes currently being conducted in the United States."

Mapping

Policy Map This link opens in a new window Easy-to-use online mapping and visualization tool. Downloadable U.S. demographic, economic and social data by city, state, zip code, county or census tract. Types of data include crime, housing, health, education and occupations, derived from both public and proprietary sources.

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