Category Archives: Measuring religion

Religious Affiliation and Volunteering

This post is just to flag up the release of the most recent Taking Part in England dataset, covering January-December 2010. This survey is sponsored by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and asks an unusually large sample their leisure and cultural pursuits. It also asks questions about friendships, political participation, and volunteering.
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Census Day

The census manages to evoke contrary responses: it’s either a bit of a joke or a threat to civil liberty. I’ll address the objections in a moment, but let’s start with the jolly part.
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The Value Orientation of Contemporary Pagans

Many new religious movements have emerged since the mid-twentieth century and Paganism is an important strand. This emergence coincided with the emergence and growth of post-materialist attitudes. As a sociologist of religion based at the University of Tampere with particular interests in Paganism, I am following this weekend’s Census with great interest. Continue reading

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Religious Affiliation by Birth Decade

Looking at the pooled British Social Attitudes 1983-2008 sample, I wanted to see how religious affiliation varies by birth decade in England, Scotland and Wales, and particularly how younger birth cohorts compare with older birth cohorts.
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Places of Worship in England and Wales, 1999-2009

We have spent a little time compiling data on registered places of worship in England and Wales from 1999-2009 and are making a note here on the data, and the caveats you need to bear in mind before interpreting them. The headline data suggest that ‘mainline’ established denominations are showing a reduction over time in numbers of places of worship, while other world religions, ‘other Christians’, and ‘other’ faith communities are exhibiting a gradual increase.
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Census Question Under Fire

There are just six days to go before UK residents have to complete the household and individual questionnaire for the decennial population census. But humanists are still simultaneously maintaining their attack on the voluntary question on religion while paradoxically encouraging … Continue reading

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“Other – Write In”

The British Election Study 2009-2010 is a valuable resource for political scientists. What researchers in religion may not realise is that the questions on religious affiliation can tell us something about how people define themselves, and to a certain extent, about the comparative size of new religious movements, sects, and smaller religions. The Internet Panel sample comprised 16816 respondents giving more ability than in smaller surveys to look at smaller faith communities. Continue reading

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The Ethnic Minority British Election Study (EMBES) – Part II

This second BRIN post reports reports various attitudes and behaviour for the May 2010 General Election by religious affiliation in a series of cross-tabulations, again using the EMBES survey. Continue reading

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National Well-Being

At the request of the Coalition Government, the Office for National Statistics is working to develop new statistical measures of national well-being, covering quality of life and environmental and sustainability issues, as well as the traditional economic performance of the … Continue reading

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A Perfect Companion

Anybody feeling a little at sea in the plethora of religious data may find a new briefing paper from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) a great boon. Written by EHRC’s research manager, David Perfect, and simply entitled Religion … Continue reading

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