Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)

Major archive for data on religion. Holds numerous international surveys on religion, including general population surveys, surveys of selected religious groups, surveys of religious professionals, and aggregate church, congregational and denominational data. Notable datasets include:

• Anti-Semitism in the United States- Results of the 1981 study may be compared to the 1964 study.
• Churches and Church Membership in the United States - Self-report forms were completed by all participating religious bodies. Data is available on a state and county level basis for 1952, 1971, 1980, and 1990.
• Cooperative Clergy Study Project Examines political beliefs, political involvement, community involvement, and religious beliefs of clergy.
• Gallup Poll of Catholics - Interviews were conducted in 1987, 1992, 1993, 1999, and 2005.
• National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) -- nationally representative telephone survey of 3,290 English & Spanish-speaking teenagers between the ages of 13-17, and their parents. Also includes 80 oversampled Jewish households, not nationally representative, bringing the total number of completed cases to 3,370. Purpose is to research the shape & influence of religion & spirituality in the lives of American youth; to identify effective practices in the religious, moral, and social formation of the lives of youth; to describe the extent & perceived effectiveness of the programs & opportunities that religious communities are offering to their youth; and to foster an informed national discussion about the influence of religion in youth's lives, in order to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth & religion. The 2nd wave was designed to be a re-interview of all Wave 1 youth survey respondents. Parents of the youth respondents were not re-interviewed. At the time of the 2nd survey, respondents were between the ages of 16-21. Conducted from June 9-November 24, 2005. 2nd wave interviews were conducted only in English. Four youth respondents did not participate in the Wave 2 interview due to not being able to understand or speak English. Wave 2 covers many of the same topics as Wave 1. Many of the questions are identical. However, Wave 2 was re-designed to take into account changes in the lives of the respondents as they began to enter young adulthood. Wave 2 included new questions pertaining to behaviors occurring during the transition to adulthood, such as non-marital cohabitation, educational and career aspirations, pregnancy and marriage. In Wave 3 every attempt was made to re-interview all English-speaking Wave 1 youth survey respondents. At the time of the 3rd survey, respondents were between the ages of 18-24. Conducted from September 24, 2007-April 21, 2008. Wave 3 replicated many of the questions asked in Waves 1 & 2 with some changes made to better capture the respondents' lives as they grew older. For example, there were fewer questions on parental monitoring and more on post-high school educational aspirations.   The 4th wave was designed to gather a final round of data on respondents, aged 23 - 28 at the time of survey fielding, which took place between February 2013 and December 2013. Every attempt was made to include as many Wave 1 participants as possible, including those who had not participated in Wave 2 and/or 3. For the first time in Wave 4, data were collected using both an online survey (for 85% of respondents) and a phone survey (for the balance). Participants were randomly sorted into the online and phone groups for purposes of methods comparison, and once survey fielding began, there was some movement between groups to accommodate respondents who either couldn't or wouldn't take the survey online, or who would only agree to participate in the survey if it was online. The survey instrument was programmed using the Qualtrics survey software of the Qualtrics Research Suite. Online survey respondents were sent a personalized link to the survey and completed the survey independently. Phone surveyors called phone survey respondents at a pre-arranged appointment time, and used the Qualtrics software to conduct the survey. Quite a few of the questions on the Wave 4 survey replicated questions from previous waves, and additional questions were added to capture relevant information about respondents' young adult lives.
• Middletown Area Studies - Data were collected from 1978 to 2004. Assessed the views and lifestyles of citizens on a diverse range of subjects. Included questions on life satisfaction, education, income, family, religion, and politics.
• Presbyterian data - Includes the Presbyterian Panel, Faith Communities Today, and the U.S. Congregational Life Survey. Long running surveys dating back to 1973.
   
• Southern Focus Polls - Southerners tend to slip through the cracks between state surveys, which are unreliable for generalizing to the region, on the one hand, and national sample surveys, which usually contain too few Southerners to allow detailed examination, on the other. Moreover, few surveys routinely include questions specifically about the South. To remedy this situation, the Institute for Research in Social Science and the Center for the Study of the American South sponsor a Southern regional survey, called the Southern Focus Poll. Respondents in both the South and non-South are asked questions about economic conditions in their communities, cultural issues (such as Southern accent and the Confederate flag), race relations, religious involvement, and characteristics of Southerners and Northerners.
   
• Survey of American Catholic Priests - Priests were surveyed about satisfaction with their training, their Presbyteral Council, and particularly their priestly ministry. Topics include their views on church authority, the role of the laity, the challenges of the priestly life, public perceptions of the priesthood, and sexuality. Survey results for 1985, 1993, 2001, and 2020 are available.
   
• System for Catholic Research, Information and Planning - The aim was to develop a dataset describing the U.S. Catholic Church at the diocesan level. Diocesan information collected from Church and other sources were merged with U.S. Census data describing population and other characteristics of the counties that make up each diocese. The total project consists of six decades worth of data -- 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990.
   
• U.S. Congregational Life Survey (2001, 2008/2009, 2011) - Over 500,000 worshipers in over 5,000 congregations across America participated in the 2 waves of the U.S. Congregational Life Survey. Three types of surveys were completed in each participating congregation: (a) an attender survey completed by all worshipers age 15 and older who attended worship services during the weekend the survey was given; (b) a congregational profile describing the congregation's facilities, staff, programs, and worship services completed by one person in the congregation; and a leader survey completed by the pastor, priest, minister, rabbi, or other principal leader. Data sets are supplied for Southern Baptist, United Methodist, and Presbyterian faiths.