STATISTICS
277
STATISTICS
tistics have been hinted at above. They are indeed
greater than the difficulties of any other branch of
statistics bearing on population. Even countries
possessing in other respects well-grounded official
statistics often lack official accounts regarding reli-
gion. The science of statistics has long since come to
the conclusion that religion belongs to the essential
items of ever>- census. As early as 1872 the Eighth
International Congress for Statistics at St. Petersburg
expressly emphasized this, pointing out the great im-
portance that must be attributed to a full and clear
statement of the individual's religion, "one of the
most essential elements of civilization". This want
is less felt hi oouiitries like Belgium, .Spain, Portugal,
and the majoritj- of the republics of South and Central
.\merica, whose populations generally profess one and
the same reUgion, excepting a small minority, whose
number can usually be ascertained in other ways with
sufficient acctu'acy. But the difficulty is great with
countries of mixed denominations, like Great Britain
and the United States, where up to now the distribu-
tion of the various reUgious bodies has not been ascer-
tained by a universal census. In such cases the defect
is to some degree remedied by an ecclesiastical census;
but this is the case only when all the indi\iiluals are
counted; and the census is not reliable when only the
commimicants or those with full right of membership
are counted, and a certain ratio is added for the rest,
as is commonly done in the Protestant denominations
of England and America. The totals arrived at in
this way are vague estimates, possessing only ap-
proximate value. The same applies to Protestant
missionary statistics as far as English and American
missionary societies are concerned.
Another difficulty in comprehensive statistics of religions hes in the classification of the various creeds. We cannot but combine smaller communities into col- lective groups. This, however, is a great inconven- ience; for thus denominations differing from one another must be connected, and then the large totals produce the impression that one important religion is meant, whereas in fact it is but a combination of a number of reUgious communities, possessing neither common organization nor identity of belief. In the first place this holds good of that great collective group comprised under the designation of "Protest- antism". This term can, in the statistics of reli- gions, be applied only in the widest and merely nega- tive sense, i. e., as meaning all those Christians who are neither Roman Catholic nor meinbcrs of a Greek or Oriental schismatical Church. As soon as we try to point out a note proper to this whole group and to it exclusively, we find ourselves at a loss. In the fol- lowing list, therefore, we have reckoned the group, designated as "Other Christians" in some official statistics, under the heading "Protestants". On principle, only those are to be counted as Catholics who are in communion with the Church of Rome; it is evident that differences in rite or liturgical language, which do not constitute any diversity of creed, are to be neglected. The self-styled "Old Catholics" do not belong to the Catholic Church, even though the official statistics of some countries reckon them as Catholics; this, however, is of no importance, as their number is insignificant. The design.ation " Schismatic Greeks" comprises all the Russian or Greek Orthodox, whether they acknowledge the Patriarch of Con- stantinople at their head or belong to independent Churches. The schismatic .•Armenians, Sjiians. Chal- deans, Copts, and Thom.os Christians may be col- lectively erouped under "Schismatic Orientals". The Russi.an R.askolniks, on the contrary, must be re- gardecl as a separate group, distinct from the Christian denominations mentioned above.
With all religious bodies only external membership comes under .statistical reckoning. Thereby it is not denied that, e. g., among the 38 millions of France be-
longmg exteriorly to the Cathohc Church many, per-
haps even many millions, are interiorly altogether
separated from the Church, just as in Germany and
other Teutonic nations we have the analogous fact
regarding Protestantism. In the Christian religions
which are, after all, the most important, membership,
ever since the days of primitive Christianity, is
founded on baptism; this membership, from the point
of view of statistics, must be considered as severed
only by a formal withdrawal or excommunication
from the particular religious body. In official census
of religions nothing but the individual's own declara-
tion comes into consideration.
A census represents the religious status of a coun- try at a given date. Of com-se, when hundreds of states are to be taken into account, there cannot be one fixed date, but at least a limited period ought to be assigned, so that the calculations for the different countries may not he too far apart. Otherwise the general impression conveyed would not be correct.
On these principles the following tables are made up, the data being taken as a rule from the years 1905 to 1910, in most cases 1907 or 1908. The re- sults of official census taken in 1910 and 1911 have not yet been published, and although a few more recent figures have become known since these lists were put together in 1910 for the "Staatslexikon der Gorres- gesellschaft", they have not been incorporated, in or- der not to impair the uniform character of the tables. In the first place, the official government census of re- ligions has been followed in each case; but with regard to those countries in which since 1900-1901 no Gov- ernment census of religions has been taken, though the numerical status of the population is officially ascertained every year, the ratio of the various re- Ugious bodies estabUshed by the preceding census of religions has been applied to the present number of inhabitants; for, excepting the "immigration coun- tries", the ratio of denominational membership shows little change within ten years. Where a government census is wanting, the data of the religious bodies themselves are made use of. Our sources are given in full in the bibliography at the end of this article. In Table III (second column) the results of the gov- ernment census of religions are marked C, along with the year in which the census was taken; the compu- tations founded upon the ratio derived from previous official records, are marked R; the non-official figures and estimates are marked E. (See Table III.)
Of the nearly 430 millions living in Europe at pres- ent, almost 411 miUions (95-5 per cent) are Chris- tians. The number of Jews (2-3 per cent) may in reality be a little less than appears in the fable, as the considerable emigration of Jews from Russia during the last decade could not be taken into account. On the other hand, the natural increase of the Jewish population of Ru.ssia, in contrast to that of the Jews in Germany and Western Europe, was exceptionally large within the period in question, so that the total number of Jews living at present (1911) in Europe should be at least 9 millions. Not quite so large is the number of Mohammedans (2 per cent). Finally there remain 1 million (2 per thousand) of other non- Christians, of individuals without religious denomi- nation, etc. Among the Chri-stians, Catholi<-s form by far the most numerous group. The\' make ui) 43-8 per cent of the total population of Europe. For- merly the percentage was even higher. The ex- traordinary increase of the Slavic races, chiefly CJreek Orthodox, and the great exodus of emigrants from Austria-Hungary, Italy. Si)ain, and Ireland are the principal causes of the relative decrease of Catholics. The Greek Orthodox have, on account of their high birth-rate, outmmibered the Protestants. The for- mer are now 2G-4 per cent of the total, the latter only 24-7 per cent, while, according to the earlier compu- tation by Krose, the Greek ()rthodox (omitting the
