The ARDA Website Offers New Features For Journalists

For immediate release: September 27, 2006

Recent innovations by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) allow for quick and easy access to the highest quality data on American and international religion.

One of the innovations, QuickStats, is particularly useful for journalists seeking statistical references on a wide range of subjects. The statistics are from the new Baylor Religion Survey 2005, the General Social Survey, and other recent national surveys.

“QuickStats makes it easy to find relationships between religion and social and moral issues, saving the media a lot of time. We automatically pick out surveys that are among the best,” said Christopher Bader, a Baylor University professor of sociology who developed the program for the ARDA.

Because QuickStats uses multiple years of the General Social Survey, it allows journalists to track trends over time. QuickStats also provides demographic breakdowns for each survey question. For example, journalists interested in how males or African Americans responded to surveys can easily find such answers with the click of a button. While such functions could be performed on the website before QuickStats, they required more time and effort, Bader said.

QuickStats currently showcases the recent Baylor Religion Survey 2005, an extensive examination of religion in the United States. It includes questions on religious attitudes, experiences and behavior, and their relation to political and social issues. QuickStats will eventually draw on many additional data sources and the ARDA will continually update the feature to reflect the most recent research.

Another recent website innovation is National Profiles, which provides statistics on religious freedom and religious adherents for virtually all nations. The profiles include indexes that measure religious freedom and regulation worldwide.

Housed in the Social Science Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University, the ARDA is funded by the Lilly Endowment and the John Templeton Foundation. Visit the ARDA website at: www.TheARDA.com