Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/319

 STATISTICS

275

STATISTICS

annually published the "Statistischen Mitteilungen aus den deutschen evangelischen Landeskirehen", a table of the baptisms, marriages, funerals, confirma- tions, communicants, losses, and conversions within the states of the German Empire and the provinces of Prussia. These statistics are accompanied by the corresponding figure of the movement of the Protest- ant population, which are for this purpose placed at disposal of the conference by the governmental sta- tistical bureaus. An official centre for ecclesiastical statistics has, however, not yet been erected by the I'rotestant Churches of Germany.

Gekman Diocesan Form of Statistical Table.

1. Chief Churches of the Parish

2. Dependent Churches

3. Public Ch.apels

Church Institutions for: —

4. (a) Teaching

5. (b) Care of Orphans

6. (c) Communicants

7. (d) Sickness, Insanity and Incurables

8. (e) the Care of the Poor and Old

9. (0 Other Purposes

10. Parish Priests

1 1. Other Secular Priests

12. ' )thpr Priests belonging to Orders

13. Houses of Male Orders

14. Members of Orders in them

Chief Occupation of These Regulars Consists in: —

15. (a) Cure of Souls, at

16. (b) Contemplative Life, at

17. (c) Training and Education, at

18. (d) Christian Charities, at

19. Houses of Female Orders ."

20. Members of Orders in them : ■ ■ •.

Chief Occupation of these Orders Consists in

21. (a) Contemplative Life, at

22. (b) Training and Education, at

23. (c) Christian Charities, at

24. Members of Parish on 1 Januarj^ 19 —

25. Klarriages of Catholic Couples

26. Catholic Betrothals of Catholic Couples

Mixed Marriages

27. (a) Catholic Groom

28. (b) Catholic Bride

Catholic Betrothals for Couples unlike in Faith

29. (a) Catholic Groom

30. (b) Catholic Bride

31. Living Births from Marriages of Catholics

32. Baptisms from purely Catholic Marriages

33. Living Births from Mixed Catholic Marriages

34. Catholic Baptisms from Mixed Catholic Marriages

35. Living Births from unmarried CathoUc Mothers

36. Catholic Baptisms of Children of unmarried Catholic

Mothers

37. Deceased Catholics

3S. Burials by the Church

39. Conversions to the Catholic Church, Total

40. Conversions from Protestantism

41. Of these. Children under 14 Years

42. Return of those who had withdrawn from the Church. ..

43. Communions .-

44. Of these. Easter Communions are

Valuable material for ecclesiastical statistics is also offered by many of the German diocesan year-books. They are limited, howev-er, to statements concerning the part icular diocese and have, therefore, only special interest. The directories issued in English, as Ken- edy, "Official Cathohc Directory", "The Catholic Directory" (London) "Australian Catholic Direc- tory", "Madr.as Directory", "Catholic Directory of British South Africa", have the advantage over the German works of this class, that they give informa- ( ion of ecclesiastical affairs for a much larger part of a country. In particular, the "Official Catholic Directory" contains much matter and is an indispen- sable reference-work for anyone who wi.shes to gain information concerning the affairs of the Church in the United States and Canada. The statements in these directories are generally limited to the names of the dignitaries of the Church and the priests, to the church institutions, schools, and monastic houses. The statistical records in the British and American directories are scanty and are not gener;illy collected on a uniform plan. There is an almost entire lack of statistical records as to ecclesiastical action, the receiving of the sacraments, and the proportion of Catholic baptisms to births from Catholic and mixed

marriages, of religious betrothals to Catholic and mixed marriages, burials with the rites of the Church to the deaths among Catholics.

It would be a good thing if the uniform table of ecclesiastical statistics which has been introduced of late in all the German dioceses were adopted by Cath- olics of other countries, as it meets all scientific demands. A translation of this table is given above. In German dioceses there are two query-shocts: Sheet A, which contains the queries given above, is sent by the episcopal curia to all the parish priests of the diocese. Before a definite date Sheet A must be filled out by the parish priest and sent to the dean, who is to examine it as to comjjleteness and correct- ness and is to enter and summarize by a rlcfinite date all the events of his deanery in the bl:iiik provided for the district supervised by a dean (Sheet, B) ; it is then sent to the episcopal curia, where the statistics for the entire diocese are put together.

Neher. KircMirhe Gengmphie iinil Stalislik, I-II (Ratisbon,

1864 and IMl.-.l: ICilu, ^..^, in. \iois, Sl.ill^fi.^rh.y Jnhrhiirh iler Kircht. l-Il (I!;'ii-l'"ii, I^'>" ni'l l^i'-'i; I'n ri.ii, KnMulu- Sla-

tistikD,ul»-hU,ni .1 ,, ,i .,,::• ,,m1 T,, Ki hK-" . \^'l'.<>: H ^ r M, ; U. VKN, Das Wtrkcn :lrr k.ilh..l, ,/:.', A.r. /.. .uij.hm Erdrnrun.l iMuriH-h, 1901); lOEM. Kirchticht Ulnlislik: Drei Aujsalzr (W cinschof™, 1905) ; Krose. KirchlirhM Handbuch, I-III (Freiburg, 1908-1911). H. A. Khosb.

Statistics of Religions. — I. Definition. — This study concerns itself with religious bo<lics, the nuniber of their members, and their distribut ion over various countries. In a wider sense the numerical account of the external manifestations of religious life also be- longs to the same study, but of late it has been cus- tomary to comprise this latter grouji fif facts under the designation of "Ecclesiastical Statistics" and to treat of them separately. As the whole field has only in the last decades been thoroughly worked, language has not as yet afforded a clear distinction between these terms. Practical reasons, however, speak in favour of such a distinction, and therefore we retain it in the present article, and treat ecclesiastical sta- tistics separately (see Statistics, Ecclesiastical).

II. Historical Development. — The first attempts to determine exactly the number of members of a religious body are found in the records of the .lesuit and Franciscan missionaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But they only give the num- ber of the Christians, and not that of the adherents of the indigenous religions in the respective countries. Dating from the eighteenth century, some accounts indeed of the various religious systems and their spread are extant, but they only mention the coun- tries over which the respective religions extended; aa to the number of their followers we possess but scat- tered data even of that period, and no comprehensive and comparative records. It was only in the nine- teenth century that an effort was made to distinguish statistically, according to religion, the entire popu- lation of the earth. The accounts given in Table I are the most accurate.

In all these calculations the total of the earth's population is considerably underrated. The munbci^s of the non-Christians are evidently only v:igtie esti- mates without any solid founchilion, :us is cle:ir from the round numbers and the greiit clilTcreuces between the various estimates. Regarding Christ i;ins the computation is indeed more accurate, but very far from the exactness requisite for scientific research. Even the attempts made by geographers, such as Hitbner, Peterman, Kolb, between 1S.50 and 1880, do not show any essential jirogress.

Statistics of religions IIkiI should come up to the requin^inents of science would be possible only if for everj- country the number of members of the v:irious religious bodies were a-scerlaincd from r(li;iblc sources, anil the totals arrived at from the individual results were tabulated. Aver:igc csliiiiatcs lli:it cNtend over entire groups of countries without definite indications