Data Archive - All Categories

This file assembles data from the United Nations Human Development Reports (HDR) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook. It includes data on economic, social and demographic variables for 316 countries, nations and regions around the world. This is an attempt to draw together numerous variables employed in cross-national research. [See More...]

This file assembles data from the 2010 United Nations Human Development Report (HDR), the 2011 edition of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) World Factbook and ARDA researchers' coding of the 2008 US Department of State International Religious Freedom (IRF) report. It includes data on economic, social and demographic variables for 252 countries and nations around the world. This is an attempt to draw together numerous variables employed in cross-national research. [See More...]

This file assembles data from multiple sources, but many of the measures are from the ARDA's coding of the 2003 US State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 195 different countries and territories (see Grim and Finke 2006 for a list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. Additional data on religious regulation and favoritism in the smaller countries not covered by the State Department Reports were provided by researchers at the World Christian Database. In addition, this project assembled (with permission) other cross-national measures of interest to researchers on religion, economics, and politics. They include adherent information from the World Christian Database, scales from Freedom House and the Heritage Foundation, and various socio-economic measures from the United Nations. Measures for religious persecution (AESTIMA) and ethnic identity (DETHNIC) were added to this file in August 2007. [See More...]

This file assembles data from multiple sources on 250 countries and territories, and also aggregates this data globally and by 22 world regions. The file presents most of the data available on the ARDA National Profiles as of August 2011 in a single downloadable dataset. Many of the measures are from the ARDA's coding of the 2008 US State Department's International Religious Freedom (IRF) Reports. This coding produced data on 198 different countries and territories (see the Summary file for the International Religious Freedom Data, 2008 for a list of countries coded, available for download from the ARDA), but excluded the United States. In addition, this project assembled (with permission) other cross-national measures of interest to researchers on religion, economics, and politics. They include adherent information from the World Christian Database, scales from Freedom House, the Religion and State Project, the Polity IV Project, the Heritage Foundation, the Correlates of War Project, and the CIRI Human Rights Data Project, and various socio-economic measures from the United Nations and the CIA's World Factbook. The source of each variable in this dataset is acknowledged in the variable's description, except in the case of those variables generated by ARDA researchers' coding of the Department of State's IRF Reports. [See More...]

This file assembles data from multiple sources on 256 countries and territories, and also aggregates this data globally and by 22 world regions. The file presents most of the data available on the ARDA National Profiles as of 2018 in a single downloadable dataset. Many of the measures are from the ARDA's coding of the 2008 US State Department's International Religious Freedom (IRF) Reports. This coding produced data on 198 different countries and territories (see the Summary file for the International Religious Freedom Data, 2008 for a list of countries coded, available for download from the ARDA), but excluded the United States. In addition, this project assembled (with permission) other cross-national measures of interest to researchers on religion, economics, and politics. They include adherent information from the World Christian Database, scales from Freedom House, the Religion and State Project, the Center for Systemic Peace, the Heritage Foundation, the Correlates of War Project, the Varieties of Democracy Project, the CIRI Human Rights Data Project, and various socio-economic measures from the United Nations, World Bank, and the CIA's World Factbook. The source of each variable in this dataset is acknowledged in the variable's description, except in the case of those variables generated by ARDA researchers' coding of the Department of State's IRF Reports. [See More...]

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2001 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see Grim and Finke 2006 for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). The ARDA also coded International Religious Freedom Reports for the years 2003 and 2005. All three years of data (2001, 2003, and 2005) are aggregated into a single dataset, International Religious Freedom Data, Aggregate File, which we recommend as the best data to use for most statistical models. [See More...]

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2003 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see Grim and Finke 2006 for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). The ARDA also coded International Religious Freedom Reports for the years 2001 and 2005. All three years of data (2001, 2003, and 2005) are aggregated into a single dataset, International Religious Freedom Data, Aggregate File, which we recommend as the best data to use for most statistical models. [See More...]

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2005 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). The ARDA also coded International Religious Freedom Reports for the years 2001 and 2003. All three years of data (2001, 2003, and 2005) are aggregated into a single dataset, International Religious Freedom Data, Aggregate File, which we recommend as the best data to use for most statistical models. [See More...]

This file contains measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2008 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 198 different countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but it excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion Index (GRI), Modified Social Regulation of Religion Index (MSRI), and Government Favoritism of Religion Index (GFI) (see Grim & Finke, 2006 for information on the GRI and GFI). [See More...]

This file contains aggregate measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2001, 2003, and 2005 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 196 different countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: Government Regulation of Religion index (GRI), Social Regulation of Religion index (SRI), Government Favoritism of Religion index (GFI) (see Grim and Finke, 2006). Data in this file represent mean coding responses for each variable from all three years of coding. [See More...]

This file contains aggregate measures from the ARDA's coding of the 2003, 2005, and 2008 U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports. This coding produced data on 199 countries and territories (see below for list of countries coded), but excluded the United States. It also includes three indexes calculated from these data: the Government Regulation of Religion Index (GRI), the Government Favoritism of Religion Index (GFI), and the Modified Social Regulation of Religion Index (MSRI) [see Grim and Finke (2006) for more information on the GRI and GFI, and see below for more information on the MSRI]. Data in this file represent mean coding responses for three of each variable from all three years of coding unless otherwise noted. Many countries have scores on variables that are expressed as decimals, and which do not correspond with a value label in the variables' descriptions. These decimal values signify that a country's scores on these variables vary over the 2003, 2005 and 2008 Reports. [See More...]

In December 2009, Pew Research Center released "Global Restrictions on Religion," the first in a series of annual reports on a data-coding project that seeks to measure levels of government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion around the world. As of February 2015, Pew Research had published six reports on global restrictions on religion, analyzing a total of seven years' worth of data (the first two reports covered a total of three years, from 2007 to 2009). [...] In order to provide social science researchers and the general public with easier access to the data, Pew Research Center has released the full dataset. [See More...]

In December 2009, Pew Research Center released "Global Restrictions on Religion," the first in a series of annual reports on a data-coding project that seeks to measure levels of government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion around the world. [See More...]

The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset. The total number of data points is approximately 42 million, distributed in six data files. [See More...]

The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset. The total number of data points is approximately 42 million, distributed in six data files. Version 2.0 expands the dataset considerably from the original version. Version 2.0 draws from many more primary and secondary sources. It covers all independent states that are included in the Correlates of War state system. Its temporal coverage ranges from 2015 back to the year of the state's independence or about 1800, whichever is later. The precise years of coverage for each state is detailed in the Codebook, Appendix A. Each variable-level data point is documented with a Coding Event number to enable users to identify the source used to populate the variable. This dataset is the fourth of six files. It contains the Government Religious Preference Financial Support. [See More...]

The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset. The total number of data points is approximately 42 million, distributed in six data files. Version 2.0 expands the dataset considerably from the original version. Version 2.0 draws from many more primary and secondary sources. It covers all independent states that are included in the Correlates of War state system. Its temporal coverage ranges from 2015 back to the year of the state's independence or about 1800, whichever is later. The precise years of coverage for each state is detailed in the Codebook, Appendix A. Each variable-level data point is documented with a Coding Event number to enable users to identify the source used to populate the variable. This dataset is the sixth of six files. It contains the Government Religious Preference Free Exercise. [See More...]

The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset. The total number of data points is approximately 42 million, distributed in six data files. Version 2.0 expands the dataset considerably from the original version. Version 2.0 draws from many more primary and secondary sources. It covers all independent states that are included in the Correlates of War state system. Its temporal coverage ranges from 2015 back to the year of the state's independence or about 1800, whichever is later. The precise years of coverage for each state is detailed in the Codebook, Appendix A. Each variable-level data point is documented with a Coding Event number to enable users to identify the source used to populate the variable. This dataset is the second of six files. It contains the Government Religious Preference Official Religion Status. [See More...]

The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset. The total number of data points is approximately 42 million, distributed in six data files. Version 2.0 expands the dataset considerably from the original version. Version 2.0 draws from many more primary and secondary sources. It covers all independent states that are included in the Correlates of War state system. Its temporal coverage ranges from 2015 back to the year of the state's independence or about 1800, whichever is later. The precise years of coverage for each state is detailed in the Codebook, Appendix A. Each variable-level data point is documented with a Coding Event number to enable users to identify the source used to populate the variable. This dataset is the fifth of six files. It contains the Government Religious Preference Regulatory Burdens. [See More...]

The Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP) measures government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations. The unit of observation is the state-year. A series of ordered categorical variables index the state's institutional favoritism in 28 different ways. Those 28 variables are combined to form five composite indices for five broad components of state-religion: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. The five components' composites in turn are further combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. All of this is done for each of the 30 religious denominations covered in the dataset. The total number of data points is approximately 42 million, distributed in six data files. Version 2.0 expands the dataset considerably from the original version. Version 2.0 draws from many more primary and secondary sources. It covers all independent states that are included in the Correlates of War state system. Its temporal coverage ranges from 2015 back to the year of the state's independence or about 1800, whichever is later. The precise years of coverage for each state is detailed in the Codebook, Appendix A. Each variable-level data point is documented with a Coding Event number to enable users to identify the source used to populate the variable. This dataset is the third of six files. It contains the Government Religious Preference Religious Education. [See More...]

The Religious Characteristics of States Dataset (RCS) was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. The third phase, Chief Executives' Religions, provides data on religious affiliations of countries' 'chief executives,' i.e., their presidents, prime ministers, or other heads of state/government exercising largely real, not ceremonial, political power. The dataset, like others in the RCS data project, is designed expressly for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles. [See More...]

The Religious Characteristics of States Dataset (RCS) was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. The third phase, Chief Executives' Religions, provides data on religious affiliations of countries' 'chief executives,' i.e., their presidents, prime ministers, or other heads of state/government exercising largely real, not ceremonial, political power. The dataset, like others in the RCS data project, is designed expressly for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles. [See More...]

The RCS-Dem dataset reports estimates of religious demographics, both country by country and region by region. RCS was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. It covers 220 independent states, 26 selected substate entities, and 41 geographically separated dependencies, for every year from 2015 back to 1900 and often 1800 (more than 42,000 state-years). It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivisions within Christianity and Islam, along with several complex categories such as "Western Christianity." RCS is designed for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles. [See More...]

The RCS-Dem dataset reports estimates of religious demographics, both country by country and region by region. RCS was created to fulfill the unmet need for a dataset on the religious dimensions of countries of the world, with the state-year as the unit of observation. It covers 220 independent states, 26 selected substate entities, and 41 geographically separated dependencies, for every year from 2015 back to 1900 and often 1800 (more than 42,000 state-years). It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivisions within Christianity and Islam, along with several complex categories such as "Western Christianity." RCS is designed for easy merger with datasets of the Correlates of War and Polity projects, datasets by the United Nations, the Religion And State datasets by Jonathan Fox, and the ARDA national profiles. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. This dataset examines constitutional clauses that address religion for 169 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2002. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of smaller states. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is based at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. This dataset examines constitutional clauses that address religion for 177 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2008. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as Western democracies with smaller populations. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is based at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. This dataset examines constitutional clauses that address religion for 177 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2022. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as Western democracies with smaller populations. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. The general goal is to provide detailed codings on several aspects of separation of religion and state for 183 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2014. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of countries with lower populations. [See More...]

This Religion and State-Minorities (RASM) dataset is supplemental to the Religion and State Round 2 (RAS2) dataset. It codes the RAS religious discrimination variable using the minority as the unit of analysis (RAS2 uses a country as the unit of analysis and, is a general measure of all discrimination in the country). RASM codes religious discrimination by governments against all 566 minorities in 175 countries which make a minimum population cut off. Any religious minority which is at least 0.25 percent of the population or has a population of at least 500,000 (in countries with populations of 200 million or more) are included. The dataset also includes all Christian minorities in Muslim countries and all Muslim minorities in Christian countries for a total of 597 minorities. The data cover 1990 to 2008 with yearly codings. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. The general goal is to provide detailed codings on several aspects of separation of religion and state for 183 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2014. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of countries with lower populations. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. The RAS dataset measures the extent of government involvement in religion (GIR), or the lack thereof, for 175 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2002. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of smaller states. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Its goal is to create a set of measures that systematically gauge the intersection between government and religion. The RAS dataset measures the extent of government involvement in religion (GIR), or the lack thereof, for 175 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2008. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of smaller states. [See More...]

The Religion and State (RAS) project is a university-based project located at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. The general goal is to provide detailed codings on several aspects of separation of religion and state for 183 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2014. This constitutes all countries with populations of 250,000 or more, as well as a sampling of countries with lower populations. [See More...]

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions (as detailed below) are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided. [See More...]

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided. [See More...]

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions (as detailed below) are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided. [See More...]

The "Religion and Rule of Law" data set was assembled from multiple data sources to aid the study of connections between religion, corruption, and the rule of law. In the resulting data file, each of the 236 cases represents a country or territory. The data file includes basic country identifiers, governance variables, religious tradition variables, demographic and developmental variables, and geography variables. Indices regarding the rule of law and the level of corruption were generated based on the World Bank's Governance Research Indicators Country Snapshot (GRICS) data set (Kaufman, Kraay, and Mastuzzi 2005). Data on the GDP per capita in constant PPP dollars and related variables are based on data from the CIA's World Factbook 2003. In addition, data on each country's largest religious groups in the years 1900 and 2000 stem from Barrett, Kurian, and Johnson (2001). Sources for all variables are shown in the attached PDF codebook. [See More...]

Pew Research Center conducted surveys among 24,599 adults (ages 18 and older) across 15 countries in Western Europe between April 2017 and August 2017. Interviewing was carried out under the direction of GfK Belgium using both cellphones and landlines. The questionnaire was designed by Pew Research Center staff in consultation with subject matter experts and advisers to the project. The wording of several questions was subjected to cognitive testing, and the full survey questionnaire was pretested in all countries prior to fieldwork. Survey questions address attitudes toward religion, respondent income, key social issues, general opinions about religion's role in society. [See More...]

This dataset examines religious non-governmental organizations that focus on human rights. The dataset contains information about each organization's founding, organizational structure, online presence, geographical focuses, human rights emphases, religious identity, and U.N. consultative status. [See More...]

This file provides summary or aggregated measures for the 82 societies participating in the first four waves of the World Value Surveys. Thus, the society, rather than the individuals surveyed, are the unit of analysis. [See More...]