Bahá'í statistics

Statistical estimates of the worldwide Bahá'í population are difficult to judge. The Faith is almost entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical denomination, 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, making statistics difficult to analyze. In countries where Bahá'ís endure some degree of persecution, membership and organizational data is not made known, and these countries may have isolated groups of believers.

Official estimates of the worldwide Bahá'í population come from the Bahá'í World Centre, which claims "more than five million Bahá’ís... in some 100,000 localities." The official agencies of the Faith have refrained from trying to publish exact population statistics, and instead publish rough estimates with data on numbers of local and national spiritual assemblies, Counselors and their auxiliaries, countries of representation, languages, and publishing trusts. ^*.

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, but definition varies around the world for different cultural and political situations. Chinese Bahá'ís, for example, are not required to sign a declaration card, even if they reside in 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 claims that anyone requesting to leave the Faith is taken off membership lists, and that effort is made to remove the names of deceased members from the rolls. Compounding this 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. Some members express their belief under the condition that they not be regularly contacted.

Difficulties in enumeration

The fact that the faith is diffuse rather than concentrated is the major barrier to enumeration. Surveys and censuses simply cannot yet be conducted with such a scope, especially not at the level required to accurately gauge religious minorities. In some countries the faith is illegal, compounding the problem.

The large growth of the Faith 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.

This growth also makes statistical estimates difficult, becoming inaccurate after the first decade. For example, from the mid 1960's until 2000, the US Baha'i population went from 10,000 to 140,000 on official rolls.

Worldwide figures

The following table was provided by the Bahá'í World Center Department of Statistics to view growth and basic statistics.^*

	1968	± 1986	2001
National Spiritual Assemblies	81	165	182
Local Spiritual Assemblies	6,840	18,232	11,740
Countries the Bahá'í Faith is established: independent countries		187	190
Countries 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

Bahá’í sources

The current US national website states that there are: "almost six million Baha'is worldwide." Also see this data sheet.
The official international website claims to have "more than five million Bahá’ís resident in some 100,000 localities in every part of the world."
The introduction to a 1995 printing of The Promise of World Peace (Special Ideas, Heltonville, IN) claims: "more than five million members... in over 120,000 localities... in over 230 countries or significant territories."
A pamphlet currently published by the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia estimates: "At present there are over 6 million Bahá'ís who live in more than 118,000 localities in over 200 countries and territories."
A 1997 statement by the NSA of South Africa wrote: "...the Bahá'í Faith enjoys a world-wide following in excess of six million people."
The Department of Statistics, Bahá'í World Centre, does not provide an estimated total, but claims that in 2001 there were 11,740 local Spiritual Assemblies, and 127,381 localities in 236 countries and territories. ^*

Other sources

Encyclopædia Britannica in mid-2002 estimated a total of 7.4 million Bahá’ís residing in 218 countries.^*
In 2005, the Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, vol 2, pg. 739, (ISBN 0-02-865733-0) records that:

"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."

adherents.com estimates 7 miillion Bahá’ís in 2000 based on research from David Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2000, and the Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org.
S. Fazel wrote: "in mid-1992, the Bahá'í Faith had 'a significant following' in 220 countries with a worldwide membership of 5.5 million."^* Fazel cites his source as: Barrett, D. "World Religious Statistics." In 1993 Britannica Book of the Year.
In 2003, "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world,"^* The World Book Encyclopedia reports that "there are about 5,500,000 Bahá’ís worldwide."
In 2001, Paul Oliver wrote in World Faiths that there were "approximately five million Bahá’ís" in 1963.
In 2004, the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa vol 1, reports that "By 1900, the community... had reached 50,000-100,000... Bahá’ís worldwide ^* estimated in 2001 at 5 million."
In 2000, Denis MacEoin wrote in the Handbook of Living Religions that:

"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."

In 1997, Dictionary of World Religions estimated "five million Bahá’ís" in the world.
In 1997, Religions of the World published: "today there are about 5 million" Bahá’ís.
In 1993, the Columbia Encyclopedia published: "There are about 5 million Bahá’ís in the world."
In 1998, the Academic American Encyclopedia said that the Bahá’ís "are estimated to number about 2 million."
In 1995 the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion states: "In 1985, it was estimated that there were between 1.5 to 2 million Baha'is, with the greatest areas of recent growth in Africa, India, and Vietnam."

The Americas

The Bahá'í Faith has a strong history in the Americas, particularly in The United States and Canada. While some of this is attributed to early "pioneers" of the Bahá'í Faith such as Kheirullah and Ahmad Sohrab, the Bahá'í Faith underwent a substantial change in its patterns of growth as of the journeys of its founder's son, `Abdu'l-Bahá to these two countries, early in the 20th century.

The United States

In the United States, hosting one of the most prominent Bahá'í communities, the official estimate in Feb 2006 is 155,119 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 1907, the Chicago Bahá'í Assembly incorporated with a national membership of around 1,000. 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.^* 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 Baha'i 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 claimed that out of the 140,000 adult (15 and over) members on the rolls, only 70,000 had known addresses While an identification of faith cannot be solely inferred from such membership data, it is reasonable to assume that affiliation on the part of individuals disengaged from participation 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.[http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions

Canada

The Canadian Bahá'í Community, according to its official website^* 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 quote 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 to declare herself a Bahá'í was Mrs. Kate C. Ives, of Canadian ancestry, though not living in Canada at the time. Moojen 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..."^*

Statistics Canada reports 14,730 Bahá'ís from 1991 census data and 18,020 in those of 2001.^*

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.

Hawai'i

The Hawaiian Bahá'í community is thought to have started from the conversion of Agnes Alexander. Near the turn of the 20th Century, she discovered the Bahá'í Faith in Europe while travelling and brought its teachings back to her homeland. 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 are not published.

Asia

The Bahá'í Faith originated in Asia, in Iran (Persia), and spread from Iran to other areas of the Muslim world. Initially Asian (or Middle-Eastern) in scale, this boundary quickly fell as it spread through Europe and the Americas. Since the middle of the 20th Century, however, growth has occurred in other Asian regions, while the Bahá'í Faith's activities in many Muslim countries has been severely suppressed by authorities.

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^*, 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.

A researcher, William Garlington, characterized the 1960's until present as a time of "Mass Teaching" 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 [http://bahai-library.com/?file=nolley_bahai_population_india this article.

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.

Eliz Sanasarian writes in Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 53) that:

"Estimating the number of Bahá'ís in Iran has always been difficult due to their persecution and strict adherence to secrecy. The reported number of Bahá'ís in Iran has ranged anywhere from the outrageously high figure of 500,000 to the low number of 150,000. The number 300,000 has been mentioned most frequently, especially for the mid- to late- 1970's, but it is not reliable. Roger Cooper gives an estimate of between 150,000 and 300,000."

The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2004) reports:

"In Iran, by 1978, the Bahá'í community numbered around 300,000."

The Columbia Encyclopedia (5th edition, 1993) reports:

"Prior to the Iranian Revolution there were about 1 million Iranian Bahá'ís."

The Encyclopedia of Islam (new edition, 1960) reports:

"In Persia, where different estimates of their number vary from more than a million down to about 500,000. 1958"

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 of Bahá'ís.

Africa

African Bahá'í Community statistics are also hard to come by. However, Africans have a long history with the Bahá'í Faith, as several of the earliest followers of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were reportedly african.

External links

References

Bahá'í

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