Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T23:07:18.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religion in the Census

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Gunnar Thorvaldsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article aims to clarify the scope of questions about religion in population censuses, and attempts to explain why such questions were included or left out of censuses taken in different nations and periods. The quantitative aspect is a fundamental question for students of religion interested in knowing where it is possible to rely on statistics about the size of confessional groups and their basic characteristics. A common use of the census in connection with religion has been to create aggregates about the size of different congregations by nation, and to cross-tabulate this with other variables such as gender, occupations, ethnicity, or regions. Enumerations with questions about religion were performed in many countries from the mid-nineteenth century, but questions about religious affiliation never entered the US censuses, and were left out of most censuses in many other countries as is indicated in the map in figure 1. We shall try to clarify how pressure was put on statistical bureaus, parliaments, and governments to promote or hinder the inclusion of questions about religion.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 38 , Issue 1-2 , Spring/Summer 2014 , pp. 203 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blum, A., and Mespoulet, M. (2003) Anarchie Bureaucratique: Pouvoir et Statistique sous Staline. Paris: Décourverte.Google Scholar
Bulletin de la Commission Centrale de Statistique (Belgique) (1843) Vol. 1. Brussels: Commission Centrale de Statistique.Google Scholar
Christopher, A. J. (2008) “The quest for a census of the British Empire c.1840–1940.” Journal of Historical Geography 34 (2): 268–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chryssides, G. D., and Geaves, R. (2007) The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Corley, F. (1994) “Believers’ responses to the 1937 and 1939 Soviet censuses.” Religion, State and Society 22 (4): 403–17.Google Scholar
Daugstad, Gunnlaug, and Østby, Lars (2009) “Det flerkulturelle Norge. Et mangfold av tro og livssyn. [The multicultural Norway. A plurality of faith and ideology.] Samfunnsspeilet 23 (3): 14–21. www.ssb.no/a/samfunnsspeilet/utg/200903/ssp.pdf (accessed April 26, 2013).Google Scholar
Desrosières, A. (1998) The Politics of Large Numbers: A History of Statistical Reasoning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, I. (1998) “The ethnic and religious questions in the British census: A symposium: Introduction.” Patterns of Prejudice 32 (2): 3–4.Google Scholar
Domschke, E., and Goyer, D. S. (1986) The Handbook of National Population Censuses: Africa and Asia. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Filatov, S., and Lunkin, R. (2006) “Statistics on religion in Russia: The reality behind the figures.” Religion, State and Society 34 (1): 33–49.Google Scholar
Francis, L. (2003) “Religion and social capital: The flaw in the 2001 census in England and Wales,” in Avis, P. (ed.) The State of Religious Belief and Practice in Britain. London: SPCK Publishing: 45–63.Google Scholar
Freedman, D. N. (1992) The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Geoghegan, Tom (2011) “Census: How religious is the UK?” BBC News, February 21, www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12507319.Google Scholar
Glavatskaya, E. (2011) “Undaunted Courage: The Polar Census in the Obdor Region,” in Anderson, D. (ed.) The 1926/27 Soviet Polar Census Expeditions. New York, Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Goyer, D. S., and Draijer, G. E. (1992) The Handbook of National Population Censuses: Europe. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Goyer, D. S., and Domschke, E. (1983) The Handbook of National Population Censuses: Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and Oceania. London: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Hecht, J. (1987) “Johan Peter Süssmilch: A German prophet in foreign countries.” Population Studies 41 (1): 31–58.Google Scholar
IPUMS (2013) Overview of census samples. https://international.ipums.org/international/samples.shtml (accessed March 20, 2013).Google Scholar
Jones, K. (1981) “Religious identity and the Indian census,” in Barrier, N. G. (ed.) The Census in British India. New Delhi: Manohar: 73–101.Google Scholar
Kraval, I. A. (1937) “Report on the census,” in Kiselev, A. F. and Shchagin, E. M. (eds.) (1996) Khrestomatiya po otechestvennoy istorii (1914–1945 gg.). Moscow: Vlados: 419–22. Cf. www.korolevperevody.co.uk/korolev/kraval.html (accessed September 12, 2012).Google Scholar
Lie, E., and Roll-Hansen, H. (2001) Faktisk talt: statistikkens historie i Norge. [Factually speaking: The history of statistics in Norway.] Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Masuzawa, T. (2005) The Invention of World Religions, or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Martol, E. E. (1988) “Manntallene av 1663–1666 og 1701.” Arkivmagasinet (2): 12–16.Google Scholar
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2008) “Appendix 3: A brief history of religion and the U.S. Census.” U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. Washington, DC: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 108–12. Cf. http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf (accessed June 17, 2013).Google Scholar
Merridale, C. (1996) “The 1937 census and the limits of Stalinist rule.” The Historical Journal 39 (1): 225–40.Google Scholar
Polyakov, Yu. A., Zhiromskaya, V. B., and Kiselev, I. N. (1990) “Polveka molchaniya.” Sotsiologicheskiye Issledovaniya [Half a century of silence. In Sosiological Investigations] (6): 3–20.Google Scholar
Schmool, M. (1998) “The ethnic question on the British census: A Jewish perspective.” Patterns of Prejudice 32 (2): 65–71.Google Scholar
Schultz, Kevin M. (2006) “Religion as identity in postwar America: The last serious attempt to put a question on religion in the United States census.” The Journal of American History 93 (2): 359–84.Google Scholar
Sherif, J. (2011) “A census chronicle: Reflections on the campaign for a religion question in the 2001 census for England and Wales.” Journal of Beliefs and Values 32 (1): 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statistics Norway (1954) Folketellingen 1st desember 1950. Hefte 7 Trossamfunn. [The Census 1st December 1950. Volume 7, Faith Communities.] Table 1. www.ssb.no/a/histstat/nos/nos_xi_153.pdf (accessed March 22, 2013).Google Scholar
Svenska Dagbladet (2008) “Judefientlighet grodde även i Sverige.” [Hostility to Jews developed even in Sweden.] SvD Cultur, August 25, http://www.svd.se/kultur/understrecket/judefientlighet-grodde-aven-i-sverige_1610811.svd.Google Scholar
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (2006) Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations for the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses Prepared in Cooperation with the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). New York and Geneva. www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/documents/ece/ces/ge.41/2007/mtg1/zip.1.e.pdf (accessed March 21, 2013).Google Scholar
Volkov, A. (1990) “Iz istorii perepisi naseleniya 1937 goda.” Vestnik Statistiki [From the history of the population census 1937. In Statistical Messenger] (8): 45–56.Google Scholar
Wood, G. (1976) Progress in Official Statistics 1840–1957—A Personal History. Wellington: Department of Statistics.Google Scholar