Statistics

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Statistical estimates of the worldwide Bahá’í population are difficult to judge. The Bahá’í Faith is entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical community, but the Bahá’í population is spread out into almost every country and ethnicity in the world, being recognized as the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. In countries where Bahá’ís endure some degree of persecution, membership and organizational data is not made public.

Official estimates of the worldwide Bahá’í population come from the World Centre, which claims "more than five million Bahá’ís... in some 100,000 localities." The official agencies of the religion often publish data on numbers of local and national spiritual assemblies, Counselors and their auxiliaries, countries of representation, languages, and publishing trusts. [1]. Less often, they publish membership statistics. In recent years, the United States Bahá’í community has been releasing detailed membership statistics.[1]

Contents

[edit] Definition of membership

The definition of membership in the US is more or less the same since the 1930s; a person must sign a declaration card stating their belief in Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and an understanding that there are laws and institutions to obey (the card does not specify them). Many countries follow the pattern of the US. Canada, where such a card largely served to identify conscientious objectors to the crown, historically required signature of a card, but made this optional early in the 21st Century.

As with any reporting of statistics, it is difficult to keep an accurate running record. The US National Teaching Committee states that anyone requesting to leave the religion is taken off membership lists, and that effort is made to remove the names of deceased members from the rolls. Because Bahá’ís must maintain accurate voting lists in order to elect their local spiritual assemblies (the local Bahá’í governing councils), considerable effort is made to maintain accurate membership data on Bahá’ís aged 21 and older. Compounding the problem of bookkeeping is a retention rate of approximately 50% within two years of enrollment, a statistic shared by most churches in the US (Wade Clark Roof).

Other than signing a card and being acknowledged by a Spiritual Assembly, there is no initiation or requirement of attendance to remain on the official roll sheets. Members receive regular mailings unless they request not to be contacted (which is rare).

[edit] Difficulties in enumeration

The fact that the religion is diffuse rather than concentrated is the major barrier to demographic research by outsiders. Surveys and censuses (except government census, which ask individuals their religion in many countries) simply cannot yet be conducted with such a scope, especially not at the level required to accurately gauge religious minorities. In some countries the Bahá’í Faith is illegal, making it difficult for even Bahá’ís to maintain a count.

The large growth of the religion in the 20th century means that most Bahá’í's were not born into the religion of their grandparents, or of the society around them, combined with the Bahá’í principle of independent investigation, makes it difficult to compare Bahá’í statistics with religions in which people are automatically assigned to statistics at birth. Some would say that this results in an overcount for major religions; others point out that as a sociological reality, Baha'i membership is often more transient than say, Catholic identity.

Rapid growth and a spotty retention rate also make membership statistics difficult to maintain, because a certain number of Bahá’ís move on to other religions without asking to removed from the Bahá’í membership rolls. From the mid 1960's until 2000, the US Baha'i population went from 10,000 to 140,000 on official rolls, but the percent of members with known addresses dropped to fifty percent.

On the other hand, most denominations make no effort at all to maintain a national membership database and must rely on local churches or surveys of the general population. Local church membership rolls are often maintained poorly because there may be no need for an official membership list (Bahá’ís at least must maintain accurate voting lists) and local congregations sometimes do not provide their denomination's membership data even when asked. Counting American Jews, half of whom are married to non-Jews and the majority of whom do not attend a synagogue, is immensely difficult. Estimates for the numbers of American Muslims and Eastern Orthodox often vary by a factor of two.

[edit] Worldwide figures

The following table was provided by the Bahá’í World Center Department of Statistics to view growth and basic statistics.[2]

1968

± 1986

2001

National Spiritual Assemblies

81

165

182

Local Spiritual Assemblies

6,840

18,232

11,740

Countries where the Bahá’í Faith is established:
independent countries

187

190

Countries where the Bahá’í Faith is established:
- dependent territories / overseas departments

45

46

Localities where Bahá’ís reside

31,572

>116,000

127,381

Indigenous tribes, races,
and ethnic groups

1,179

>2,100

2,112

Languages into which Bahá’í literature is translated

417

800

802

Bahá’í Publishing Trusts

9

26

33

[edit] Bahá’í sources

[edit] Other sources

"In the early twenty-first century the Bahá’ís number close to six million in more than two hundred countries. The number of adherents rose significantly in the late twentieth century from a little more than one million at the end of the 1960's."
"the movement has had remarkable success in establishing itself as a vigorous contender in the mission fields of Africa, India, parts of South America, and the Pacific, thus outstripping other new religions in a world-wide membership of perhaps 4 million and an international spread recently described as second only to that of Christianity. The place of Baha'ism among world religions now seems assured."

[edit] The Americas

The Bahá’í Faith has a long history in the Americas, particularly in the United States and Canada, where it was established in 1894 by a Lebanese Bahá’í immigrant to the United States, Ibrahim Kheiralla.

[edit] The United States

In the United States, hosting one of the most prominent Bahá’í communities, the official estimate in Sep 2006 was 156,892 members on record, excluding Alaska and Hawai'i.

In 1894 Thornton Chase became the first American Bahá’í. By the end of 1894 four other Americans had also become Bahá’ís. In 1909, the first National Convention was held with 39 delegates from 36 cities. In 1944 every state in the nation had at least one local Bahá’í administrative body.[7] The list of Bahá’ís from the 1890s to the present is a composite from various sources. The figures before 1934 are the best estimates possible, based on the US Religious Census (information collected by the Bahá’ís based on various definitions of membership). The figures from 1940 to the 1960s or 1970s come from Bahá’í News, where the figures were occasionally published. From the 1970s and on, the staff at the National Teaching Committee compiled the data from national membership records.

In an informal letter in 1998, Dr. Robert Stockman, the coordinator of the Research Office of the US Bahá’í National Center wrote:

"The National Center, obviously, is not in the position to decide which cards were signed in good faith and which were not. The National Spiritual Assembly instituted a two-tier process about 1974, of (1) declaration, and (2) enrollment, the latter involving a meeting with the declarant to ascertain that the person understands what s/he is doing. The two-stage process was inaugurated because of abuses in mass-teaching campaigns during 1968-72."

In December, 1999, the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States stated that out of the 140,000 adult (15 and over) members on the rolls, only 70,000 had known addresses [8]. It is reasonable to assume that affiliation on the part of some individuals disengaged from participation in the Bahá’í community over extended periods is open to question. The American Religious Identity Survey (ARIS) conducted in 2001, with a sample size of 50,000, estimated that there were 84,000 self identifying adult (21 and over) Baha'is in the United States.[9]

[edit] Canada

The Canadian Bahá’í Community, according to its official website[10] consists of some 30,000 members across approximately 1200 communities throughout the 13 Canadian Provinces and Territories. According to the same source, the Canadian community is quite diverse: "There are French-speaking and English-speaking Bahá’ís, and more than 18% of Canadian Bahá’ís come from First Nations and Inuit backgrounds; another 30% are recent immigrants or refugees."

The Canadian community is one of the earliest western communities, at one point sharing a joint National Spiritual Assembly with the United States, and is a co-recipient of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan. The first North American woman to declare herself a Bahá’í was Mrs. Kate C. Ives, of Canadian ancestry, though not living in Canada at the time. Moojan Momen, in reviewing "The Origins of the Bahá’í Community of Canada, 1898-1948" notes that "the Magee family... are credited with bringing the Bahá’í Faith to Canada. Edith Magee became a Bahá’í in 1898 in Chicago and returned to her home in London, Ontario, where four other female members of her family became Bahá’ís. This predominance of women converts became a feature of the Canadian Bahá’í community..."[11]

Statistics Canada reports 14,730 Bahá’ís from 1991 census data and 18,020 in those of 2001.[12]

[edit] Alaska

Alaska is unusual in that it is not an independent nation, recognized by the United Nations, and yet has a National Spiritual Assembly. Its specific statistics are not published, and are often not broken out in non-Bahá’í statistics of the USA in general. One source puts the 1992 combined membership in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico combined at approximately 6000.

[edit] Hawai'i

The Hawaiian Bahá’í community began when Agnes Alexander became a Bahá’í in Paris in 1900 and returned to the islands in 1901. Similar to Alaska, the Bahá’ís of Hawai'i have an independent National Spiritual Assembly from that of the USA, though it is itself one of the 50 United States. Independent statistics have not published.

[edit] Asia

The Bahá’í Faith originated in Asia, in Iran (Persia), and spread from there to the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia, India, and Burma during the lifetime of Bahá’u’lláh. Since the middle of the 20th Century, growth has particularly occurred in other Asian countries, because the Bahá’í Faith's activities in many Muslim countries has been severely suppressed by authorities. Exceptions have been Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where the Bahá’í Faith is legal and largely unrestricted.

[edit] India

Main article: India

The largest Bahá’í community in the world is said to be in India, with an official Bahá’í population of 2.2 million[13], and roots that go back to the first days of the religion in 1844.

In the 1991 census only 5,575 people claimed to be Bahá’í. The issues of caste, multiple religious identities, and rapid growth of the religion all make accurate estimates difficult, and not easiliy compared to Western standards of a religious population. Furthermore, Indian census workers in rural areas often do not canvas households, but assign people a religion based on their personal and family names. Since Bahá’ís do not change their names, they are often counted as Hindus or Muslims.

A researcher, William Garlington, characterized the 1960's until present as a time of "Mass Teaching" [14]. He suggests that the mentality of the believers in India changed during the later years of Shoghi Effendi's ministry, when they were instructed to accept converts who were illiterate and uneducated. The change brought teaching efforts into the rural areas of India, where the teachings of the unity of humanity attracted many of the lower caste. See also this article.

[edit] Iran

Iran has what is perhaps the second- or third-largest Bahá’í population. Estimates for the early twenty-first century vary between 150,000 and 500,000. During the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent few years, a significant number of Bahá’ís fled the country during intensive persecution. Estimates before and after the revolution vary greatly.

At times the authorities in Iran have claimed that there are no Bahá’ís in their country, and that the persecutions were made up by the CIA. The first claim apparently represents a legal rather than anthropological determination, as Bahá’ís are regarded as Muslims under Iranian law. For the latter, see Persecution.

[edit] Malaysia

A large concentration of Bahá’ís is also found in Malaysia, made up of Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans, Aslis and other indigenous groups. The Bahá’í community of Malaysia claims that "about 1%" of the population are Bahá’ís.[15] Given the 2006 population of Malaysia, such a claim represents about 268,000 Bahá’ís.

[edit] Vietnam

On March 21, 2007, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, about 280 people attended a reception where the government Committee for Religious Affairs presented a certificate giving recognition to Baha'i activities.[16] Vietnamese government authorities at the time stated that Vietnam had 7,000 Bahá’ís, a number that may reflect thirty years of government restrictions.[2] The estimate of 300,000 Bahá’ís in Vietnam [17] is based on World Christian Encyclopedia, by David Barrett, 2000.[18]

[edit] Africa

African Bahá’í Community statistics are also hard to come by. However, Africans have a long history with the Bahá’í Faith; several of the earliest followers of both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh were reportedly African. From 1924 to 1960 the religion was declared one of the legally sanctioned faiths in Egypt, but has since then been subject to restrictions and outright persecution by authorities and others.

[edit] South America

The Bahá’í Faith was introduced into South America in 1919 when Martha Root made an extended trip to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. She introduced the Bahá’í Faith to Esperantists and Theosophical groups and visited local newspapers to ask them to publish articles about the Bahá’í Faith. The first Bahá’í permanently resident in South America was Leonora Holstaple Armstrong, who arrived in Brazil in 1921. The first Seven Year Plan (1937-44) gave the American Bahá’ís the goal of establishing the Bahá’í Faith in every country in Latin America (that is, settling at least one Bahá’í or converting at least one native). In 1951, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South America was first elected. By 1963, most countries in South America had their own National Spiritual Assembly.

[edit] Bolivia

The South American country with possibly the most interesting Bahá’í history is Bolivia, where the Faith was introduced to rural Quechua and Aymara Indians starting in 1956. Large numbers of rural people became Bahá’ís. The Bolivian Bahá’ís launched a radio station around 1980 that broadcasts educational programs and Bahá’í information in native languages, as well as traditional music. The World Christian Encyclopedia, drawing on the Bolivian government census, reports 269,246 Bahá’ís in 2000. Official Bahá’í membership figures are much lower, reflecting the impact the radio station has had on the religious identity of many rural people who have never encountered local Bahá’í communities.[3].

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ See, for example, county-by-county information on numbers of Bahá’ís in Dale E. Jones et al., Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States, 2000 (Nashville, Tenn.: Glenmary Research Center, 2002) or Edwin Scott Gaustadd and Philip L. Barlow, New Historical Atlas of Religion in America (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001, 279-81.)
  2. ↑ "Small Breakthrough in Freedom of Religion," Agence France Press, March 22, 2007
  3. ↑ David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Encycleopdia: A comparative survey of churches and religions in the modern world, Vol. 1, The world by countries: religionists, churches, ministries (Oxford: Oxford univ. Press, 2001), 120.
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