1. Clive D. Field Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester
Counting on Religion? University of Glasgow 17 September 2013
Clive D. Field
Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester

2. Overview Genesis 3 Scope 4 Audiences 5 News 6-7 Sources 8-11
Other features
Site traffic
Testimonials
Limitations
Contact details

3. Genesis FORERUNNERS OF BRIN Churches and Churchgoers (1977)
Reviews of UK Statistical Sources: Religion (1987)
BRIN – PROJECT INTO SERVICE
AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme large grant (£267,000) to University of Manchester,
Co-directors: David Voas and Clive Field
Project officer: Siobhan McAndrew
BRIN website formally launched March 2010
Website maintained/developed since 2011 mainly on goodwill basis

4. Scope Quantitative data with certain thresholds and exclusions
Historical (from 17th century) and contemporary
Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland
Selective coverage of sub-national sources
Serial (recurrent) and non-recurrent sources
Collected by state, faith communities, other agencies
Organizational data and measures of personal beliefs, practices, and attitudes
Full spectrum of religions (including non-Christian and alternative) and irreligion

5. Audiences Academics Faith communities Policy makers Media
General public

6. News Microblogging sub-site 623 posts since January 2010
URLs of new posts now tweeted to 248 followers on Twitter
Increasingly posts aggregate multiple news items (up to eight per post)
Content and methodology of each new source described and, wherever possible, URL cited for fuller information
Posts mostly written by BRIN team but some external contributors
Moderated comments facility
News archive browseable by date or searchable by tags/keywords

7. News – Recent Scottish 3/2011: Catholics in Scottish prisons
5/2011: Church of Scotland statistics
9/2011: Sectarianism in Scotland
5/2012: Religious education in Scottish schools
8/2012: Marriages in Scotland
11/2012: Scottish Health Survey on religion
3/2013: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey on religion
4/2013: Sunday Times Scotland/Real Radio Scotland religion poll
6/2013: Scottish Episcopal Church statistics
7/2013: Religiously aggravated offending in Scotland

8. Sources Catalogue and not encyclopedia of data
2,115 entries in database as at December 2012
Batch update of database (new and amended entries) each December
Extending from 1603 to present
Focusing on non-recurrent (especially sample survey) data
Some bias towards more recent/contemporary sources (so Reviews of UK Statistical Sources: Religion still needs consulting)
Fully searchable (with 13 advanced search functions, including date, faith community, geography, collection method etc.)

9. Sources – Geographical Breakdown%
Multinational
155
7.3
United Kingdom
179
8.5
Great Britain
1,380
65.2
England and Wales
128
6.1
England
205
9.7
Wales 24
1.1
Scotland 89
4.2
Local
139
6.6

10. Sources – Recent Scottish
2/2010: Attitudes to Muslims (Ipsos MORI)
6/2010: Papal visit (Opinion Research Business)
1/2011: Affiliation and religiosity (YouGov)
7-8/2011: Sectarianism and football (TNS-BMRB)
6-9/2011: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (ScotCen)
11/2011: Religion and same-sex marriage (Progressive)
2/2012: Religion and LGBT people (YouGov)
3-4/2012: Religious education in schools (YouGov)
6/2012: Religion and same-sex marriage (Ipsos MORI)
3/2013: Religion at Easter (Panelbase)

11. Sources – Sample Entry Faith Community: General, Christianity
Type of Data: Religious attitudes to lesbian, gay and bisexual people; attitudes to Christians and non- Christians
Date: 2012, February
Geography: Scotland
Sample Size: 1968
Population: Adults aged 18 and over
Subject Keywords: Christian religious groups, homosexuality, non-Christian religious groups, prejudice, religious affiliation, religious attitudes, religious institutions, religious representatives, same-sex marriages, sexual orientation
Collection Method: Online interview
Collection Agency: YouGov
Sponsor: Stonewall
Published Source:
Source number: Last updated: December Contributed by Clive D. Field

12. Other Website Features
History of development of religious statistics in Britain
Full text of Reviews of UK Statistical Sources: Religion
18 sets of charts, maps, and data tables (one of which comprises all tables from Churches and Churchgoers, converted to Excel)
Links to other sites/resources
FAQs on researching religious statistics

13. Site Traffic (March 2010-April 2013)
186,000 visits (19,000 to 11/2010, 35,000 to 3/2011, 60,000 to 9/2011)
142,000 unique visitors (15,000 to 11/2010, 28,000 to 3/2011, 46,000 to 9/2011)
422,000 page views (59,000 to 11/2010, 105,000 to 3/2011, 166,000 to 9/2011)
Visits from 187 countries (although 70% from UK and 11% from US)
65% of visits via Google etc., 13% enter BRIN URL
‘How many Muslims?’ most accessed post (13,200 page views)
‘Church attendance in England, ’ second most accessed (4,300 page views)

14. Site Traffic (March 2010-April 2013)

15. Testimonials
Ruth Gledhill (The Times): ‘I know that over the coming weeks, months and years, researchers and journalists at The Times will have cause to be grateful to … British Religion in Numbers’
Andrew Brown (The Guardian/Church Times): ‘the increasingly indispensable BRIN website’
Brierley Consultancy: ‘Thanks for all the interaction … your BRIN website gets high comments’
eChurch Blog: ‘I’m rather a big BRIN fan … a huge thank you for all the hard work you do here on this site, and I know that I can say that on behalf of my blog readers also’
Christian Research Consultancy: ‘BRIN offers an invaluable service … It not only keeps us informed about relevant research but provides excellent impartial commentary on the findings and issues raised’

16. Limitations
Limited debate on site, perhaps reflecting broadly impartial approach
Limited collations of data (for example, sample surveys)
Limited summative interpretations of data
Limited capacity to undertake original primary research
Limited capacity to provide customized advice
Site does not host third party datasets/documents but dependent on external links (which often quickly broken)
Limited capacity to clear rights to mount data on site
US Association of Religion Data Archives currently has 12 staff members!
Lack of cooperation from some data owners
Engagement with/interest from academic community still fairly weak

17. Contact Details
Website: Twitter: or

18. Thank you Any questions?