Friday, February 8, 2013

World Christian Demographics/World Christian Database Trial

Currrently (until March 25) Hekman Library has a trial subscription to the World Christian Database (note that access to the database via this link is available from on-campus only).

Here's a little background: Every year the International Bulletin of Missionary Research issues a brief update of significant global and regional statistics presented in the World Christian Encyclopedia (ed. David Barrett et al., 2nd ed., Oxford, 2001). Here's a link to the most recent update, Status of Global Mission, 2013... (this will take you to a page where you can register for free online access to the journal).  The statistical data in the WCE are now regularly updated in the WorldChristianDatabase (now available via a fairly expensive subscription through Brill; we don't subscribe at Hekman Library), but it's good to get the yearly summary in the IBMR.    The update this year also references the very useful Pew Forum report, Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population, as well as a number of other demographic studies of religion.

When one looks through these statistics the question arises as to how the data was gathered (e.g., how does one get reliable statistics about membership trends in the Hussite Church of Slovakia?) The methodology behind statistics such as this is the subject of a forthcoming book on religious demography: The World's Religion in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography, by Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim (Wiley Blackwell, June 2013). In the meantime, see the article "Estimating the Religious Composition of All Nations: An Empirical Assessmentof theWorld Christian Database," by Becky Hsu et al.,  Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2008) 47(4):678–693.