For immediate release: February 27, 2006
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) provides access to the highest quality data on religion. Now including information on American and international religion, the newly designed website generates online national profiles, maps, church membership overviews, denominational heritage trees, tables, charts, and other summary reports. Visit the new website at: www.TheARDA.com.
Among the ARDA’s newest features are statistical and descriptive profiles of nations and regions around the world, providing facts and figures on the adherents of various religions and on religious freedom and regulation.
The new international data section features national profiles that are integrated with indexes on religious freedom and regulation recently computed by the ARDA’s staff. The indexes are unique in that they provide measures for the social regulation of religion and are coded from the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Reports.
Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997, the initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in American religion. The ARDA, housed at Penn State University and supported by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., and the John Templeton Foundation, now serves a wide cross section of researchers, educators, students, journalists, and religious professionals from around the world.
The ARDA site includes over 350 data files on national and international religion which are available for online preview. Most of the files can be downloaded for additional research. The most popular data files among visitors to our website are highlighted and easy to access and search.
The ARDA has also developed a series of tools for educational purposes. Learning modules provide structured class assignments and the many online tools allow students to explore religious beliefs, attitudes and behavior across the globe or in their own backyard. The data reviewed and analyzed are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world.
