All the stats on religion that you'll ever need...

September 29, 2005 9:31 AM

Adherents.com is "a growing collection of over 43,870 adherent statistics and religious geography citations". In plain English, this amazing site contains all the data one could ever want on religion, from the basic (nationally predominant religions by country, largest religious groups in the United States, top 50 countries with the highest proportion of atheists) to the esoteric (a guide to religion in films, authors who have converted to a new religion, religious affiliation of U.S. presidents, famous adherents of various religions (e.g. famous Mennonites)). There's even religious information for geeks, including obsessive articles on the religion of George Lucas, the religious affiliation of comic book characters, and religious affiliation of famous fantasy and science fiction authors (related: Amish in science fiction and Mormonism in science fiction). One could spend days sifting through this site.
posted by jdroth (46 comments total)

Its somewhat scary that Mormons are growing so quickly, and constitute the majority of 'Christians' (I'm not sure if I'd classify Mormons as Christians... There's at least as much difference between Mormons and Christians as Muslims and Christians. Not that there is anything wrong with Mormonism, at least in comparison to Christians)

Oh well.
posted by delmoi at 9:38 AM on September 29, 2005

Hmm, super-villains appear to be disproportionately of a certain faith.
posted by dgaicun at 9:39 AM on September 29, 2005

"Its somewhat scary that Mormons are growing so quickly, and constitute the majority of 'Christians'"

Wow, what graph did you seriously misread??
posted by dgaicun at 9:46 AM on September 29, 2005

Yeah, I'm not seeing that data borne out on the website.

(Interesting site btw, thanks jdroth)
posted by selfnoise at 9:53 AM on September 29, 2005

While extensive, there seems to be no information about my religion, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.
posted by Mr_Zero at 9:57 AM on September 29, 2005

Nor mine, Secret Ninja Jumping Up and Killing Ism.
posted by selfnoise at 10:04 AM on September 29, 2005

Ok, so what's the bottom line? ;-)
posted by Pressed Rat at 10:04 AM on September 29, 2005

Have to say that it's a bit of a relief to see that "Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist" is the top 3rd "religion". Sometimes I feel alone down here in the Red US of A.
posted by melt away at 10:09 AM on September 29, 2005

The countries with the highest proportion of atheist/agnostic list is fascinating.

#1. Sweden (49-85%)
#2. Vietnam (81%)
...
#19. Israel (15-37%) [even if you take the low end of that, it's almost twice the cited percentage for the USA]

Cool! Thanks.
posted by Marquis at 10:30 AM on September 29, 2005

Britain only 15th in the atheist list??!! Beaten by France and Germany??!! Appalling! And to think they're still telling me to stop attacking religion!
posted by Decani at 10:34 AM on September 29, 2005

I didn't notice before, but there's an entire article analyzing religion in Oregon. Oregon is one of the least religious of the fifty states, but there's still a vocal, powerful conservative religious coalition. (Though admittedly this coalition has lost much of its power over the past decade.)
posted by jdroth at 10:40 AM on September 29, 2005

"Its somewhat scary that Mormons are growing so quickly, and constitute the majority of 'Christians'"

Wow, what graph did you seriously misread??

I meant the majority in certan states, beyond just Utah.
posted by delmoi at 10:43 AM on September 29, 2005

I had seen this site before, but never had noticed the sheer amount of STUFF here. Wow.

And delmoi, according to this page, you're still wrong. It's just Idaho and Utah where Mormons are a majority of the population.
posted by artifarce at 10:49 AM on September 29, 2005

Just for contrast, I recently came across Religion Facts which simply attempts to define dispassionately the tenets and practices of each belief system. I'm not sure if it's been posted here but I thought it was a pretty good impartial resource.
posted by peacay at 10:50 AM on September 29, 2005

This was a great site, but how in the hell do they expect you to understand the millions of poorly organized graphs and charts and what not. this site would be amazing if it was better organized.
posted by stilgar at 10:51 AM on September 29, 2005

HOw are these stats compiled? Information from the churches themselves? (I can't access the website right now, because I'm at work and it's blocked.)

At least in the case of Mormon churches, once a person is registered with the church, that person stays on the rolls indefinitely, whether or not they are an active member, and whether or not that person even still considers themselves Mormon. (At least they stay on the rolls unless/until the Church officially kicks them out.)

Also, regarding atheism in the Scandinavian countries...these countries all have freedom of religion but (until recently) there was an official state church (Lutheran), and residents had to pay a church tax. You could get out of paying the tax by officially registering as an atheist, but this does prevent you from using any church for anything (such as getting married in the church).
posted by luneray at 10:58 AM on September 29, 2005

Not only are Swedish girls georgious, they don't believe in god either! :)
posted by jeffburdges at 11:02 AM on September 29, 2005

Gorgeous Swedish girls almost make me believe in God . . .
posted by ToasT at 11:27 AM on September 29, 2005

Not only are Swedish girls georgious, they don't believe in god either! :)

Yup, a one-way ticket to hell. Blasphemy for blondes? Count me in.
posted by Mach3avelli at 11:29 AM on September 29, 2005

I find it interesting and amusing that Sweden, which does have an official state religion, is so highly atheistic, while the United States, which does not, is not.
posted by solid-one-love at 11:31 AM on September 29, 2005

Lotsa Catholic superheroes too.

Huh. Although it's a dramatic religion. Rituals n' stuff.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:33 AM on September 29, 2005

For more on LDS (Mormon) membership stats, see this recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune. (Someone posted this in a thread not long ago, not sure where or who deserves props for calling it to my attention. But whoever you were, thanks! It was professionally helpful.)

... [M]ost telling, the number of Latter-day Saints who are considered active churchgoers is only about a third of the total, or 4 million in the pews every Sunday, researchers say.
posted by donpedro at 11:36 AM on September 29, 2005

Wow. What a terrific site!
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:12 PM on September 29, 2005

Also, in the case of Sweden, the government took over a lot of the services that were originally provided by the church. The philosophy of the Swedsih socialist welfare state is the "people's home", the institution you turn to when your own family can't provide. Hospitals, schooling, charity services...all provided by the state.

And while there are still many, many Swedes who belong to the Lutheran church, regular church attendance is low, because the state now provides most of the services that were historically provided by the Church. Before the rise of the welfare state, the local pastor was the ONLY government official in many areas. Travelling papers, sending post, etc. were all handled by him.

Most contemporary Swedes use the Church for Rites of Passage events--christening, confirmation, weddings, and funerals.

The Swedish church is now independent (that is, no longer supported by taxes).
posted by luneray at 12:18 PM on September 29, 2005

Interesting site. Quibble: in the section on Yoruba religion they totally missed the fact that one of the largest New World communities is in Brazil (though they note it elsewhere). For a succinct description of Candomblé and Umbanda, see this page. You can hear the music here, and this looks like an interesting book.
posted by languagehat at 12:23 PM on September 29, 2005

Janet [Asimov's wife] and I have a special interest in stories about Mormons. In Janet's case there's a loose genealogical connection. In my case, there's an interest in any group that considers me a Gentile.

Awesome.
posted by undule at 12:31 PM on September 29, 2005

They have Ursula K. LeGuin's "religious" affiliations as Taoist and feminist!
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:47 PM on September 29, 2005

Shakers shook and Quakers quook, but what was the Methodist method?
posted by pracowity at 1:06 PM on September 29, 2005

artifarce

delmoi is probably just regurgitating what the missionaries that stopped by his house told him.
posted by Mr_Zero at 1:51 PM on September 29, 2005

re: the author's list. Haven't heard of more than five or six of them. Maybe because there were so many fantasy authors listed sue to the predelictions of the list-maker. I guess I am admitting to religious prejudice here, but why would so many authors convert to the Latter-Day Saints? (And no fair saying it's a made-up religion, and that would appeal to someone who makes things up for living...that would make you even more of a bigot than me.)
posted by kozad at 2:06 PM on September 29, 2005

Fantastic Journeys: Mormon authors say faith informs their science fiction.

Damn Bigots.
posted by dgaicun at 2:44 PM on September 29, 2005

Kozad: It's a made-up religion, and that would appeal to someone who makes things up for living. Also, people believe crap (first lesson in life, kid).
posted by Sparx at 2:51 PM on September 29, 2005

dgaicun: That's an awfully broad brush, friend. (Great link, though, thanks!)
posted by donpedro at 2:55 PM on September 29, 2005

Oops. On second thought, I may have misread you. Sorry about that.
posted by donpedro at 3:15 PM on September 29, 2005

It's a made-up religion

wait...there are religions that aren't made up?
posted by lord_wolf at 3:16 PM on September 29, 2005

^^ precisely... I'm convinced that the more bizarre a religion seems, the more recent it is... and this is borne out almost in every case.
posted by cell divide at 3:29 PM on September 29, 2005

^^ precisely... I'm convinced that the more bizarre a religion seems, the more recent it is... and this is borne out almost in every case.
posted by cell divide at 3:42 PM on September 29, 2005

wait...there are religions that aren't made up?

Of course, you fool! Whatever religion a person happens to believe in isn't made up! It's divinely inspired! It's all the other ones that are made up!

The great thing is, this is true for all religions! Isn't religion great?
posted by Decani at 5:15 PM on September 29, 2005

Part of the appeal of the LDS church to fantasy / sci-fi authors is how sci-fi the core theology is.

If you strip away the churchy aspects of LDS theology and just look at the vision for the future of mankind, you'll find it has a strange resemblence to Kurzweil and other Singularity utopians. I think this would be a great paper for anyone's undergrad thesis.

God was once a man who lived on a distant planet and then found something which made him into something different and more powerful, post-human, and gave him the ability to create life on his own. God wants to share that information with you, to help you with your own evolution, so eventually you will join him as an equal or near-equal.

It is, in many respects, a very optimistic religion Not about hell and brimstone at all, unlike the pessimistic Baptists.

Now that I think about it, a Singularity - LDS crossover novel is one I would happily buy. Any budding sci-fi authors out there, please steal this idea.
posted by pandaharma at 6:54 PM on September 29, 2005

wait...there are religions that aren't made up?

Well, I think some people actually have visions -- the visions are all in their heads (imagined), but they really are experiencing and believing them -- whereas Joseph Smith and Lafayette Hubbard, to name a couple of relatively modern cases, seem to have made their shit up consciously. Of course, that could just be the difference in perspective; maybe we've lost a lot of interesting stories about Jesus and others over time.
posted by pracowity at 11:15 PM on September 29, 2005

I can't find anywhere in this site how many different Christian denominations there actually are. I know from driving around Southern California - especially along secondary roads, I pass dozens of churces, many callling themselves Baptist and some Evangelical but always with different predicates. Someone mentioned once that there are over two hundred. I would suspect that there are more, but the lists on this otherwise excellent site seem to group a lot of them together. So if anyone knows of a more complete list or at least a grand total, I would appreciate hearing about it.
Also, for that matter, how many different kinds of Judiism, and Islam are there. We only ever hear about the three biggest bodies in each but there are a lot more that crop up.
posted by donfactor at 5:02 AM on September 30, 2005

Christian denominations.

Divisions of Islam.

Jewish denominations.
posted by languagehat at 5:52 AM on September 30, 2005

" Shakers shook and Quakers quook, but what was the Methodist method?"

The Methodist method was apparenty gathering together in small groups and actually reading and discussing the New Testament. A bunch of radical kooks, even then...
posted by feersum endjinn at 10:44 AM on September 30, 2005

But did they (or someone else) call Bible discussion "the method" or something like that?
posted by pracowity at 11:43 AM on September 30, 2005

No, someone else at the university started calling them that and it just stuck.

From John Wesely's "A Short History of Methodism":

"The exact regularity of their lives, as well as studies, occasioned a young gentleman of Christ Church to say, "Here is a new set of Methodists sprung up;" alluding to some ancient Physicians who were so called. The name was new and quaint; so it took immediately, and the Methodists were known all over the University."
posted by feersum endjinn at 12:58 PM on September 30, 2005

Thanks so much! Great site...
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 9:10 PM on September 30, 2005