Reassessing the Size of Mormons, Adventists and Witnesses: Using Census Data to Test the Reliability of Membership Data and Accounting for the Disparate Patterns Found
This article compares the growth of three religious groups, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. All originated in America during the nineteenth century and have since globalized. It begins by using their official membership data to contra...
| Published in: | Review of religious research |
|---|---|
| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer
[2020]
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| In: |
Review of religious research
|
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Mormon Church
/ Adventists
/ Jehovah's Witnesses
/ Member
/ Measurement
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy KBQ North America KDH Christian sects ZB Sociology |
| Further subjects: | B
Growth
B LDS Church B Membership rolls B Mormon B Projections B Trajectories B Adventists B Jehovah’s Witnesses B Witnesses B Baptisms B Distributions B Decline B Seventh-day Adventists B Census B LDS |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | This article compares the growth of three religious groups, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. All originated in America during the nineteenth century and have since globalized. It begins by using their official membership data to contrast their aggregate growth over time. It then questions the reliability of those official statistics. Noting that each group employs different criteria in selecting who it counts, it employs census data from 54 countries in all regions of the world and five surveys of US adult religious affiliation with adjustments for children as a proxy for an American census to provide a common basis for comparison. It finds consistent patterns, where membership data greatly overstate the number of Mormons, understate the number of Adventists, and also understate the number of Witnesses to an even greater extent. The article then calculates a weighted ratio between official and census data for each group and uses those ratios to estimate their aggregate adherents. This method results in a dramatic reordering of their sizes. Finally, the article accounts for the variations found between the three groups. |
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| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s13644-020-00408-z |