World Religion Map by National Subdivision (user search)
       |           

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 29, 2024, 10:40:58 AM
News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more

  Talk Elections
  General Discussion
  Religion & Philosophy (Moderator: World politics is up Schmitt creek)
  World Religion Map by National Subdivision (search mode)
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: World Religion Map by National Subdivision  (Read 26711 times)
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« on: February 02, 2014, 05:06:58 PM »

I made this recently. It's not perfect as it comes from a multitude of sources stitched together over many different years with different measurement procedures, and I had to adjust some numbers to match sources, but I think overall it is a pretty accurate reflection of reality. I started with the most recent census data for different countries and found other sources to fill in the gaps.

Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2014, 06:02:46 PM »

If you split Christianity into Protestant/Catholic/Orthodox, I'd have done the same thing with Islam and Buddhism (the latter might be more difficult though). Still, amazing work.

I would like to, but the data really isn't there unfortunately.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2014, 03:03:17 PM »

Great work.

The Sub-Saharan African part of the map - with its divisions between denominations - is, well, *interesting*.

EDIT: Speaking of which, where did you get the data? And Furthermore, do you have a blank National subdivision World map to use as a template?

The world map is a modified version of this one. Most of my data sources are listed on the map. If you have a specific country in mind, I can probably find my source again.

Some of the patterns are quite interesting such as the Protestant belt in Central America or the more Buddhist vs. more secular areas of Japan.

But are the non-yellow areas in Japan light browns or light greys? If the latter, realisticidealist, how on earth did your sources distinguish between Buddhist and Shinto practice in Japan to that degree?

I used data from Japan's Statistics Bureau. It appears they counted some people as practicing both Shinto and Buddhism. I'm not sure what their methodology beyond that is, though.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2015, 11:31:04 AM »

More detailed maps I finally finished:









Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2015, 02:48:30 PM »

Very detailed. One of the most informative maps posted on the forum Smiley

Just a few points on my home turf. If you are calculating 'No Religion' for Scotland then census guidance suggests that should include those who not only actively declare 'No Religion' on their Census box, but also don't fill it in ('Religion not stated') as faith is a declaration yadda yadda. That boosts the grey somewhat.

As a general rule, I discarded anyone who didn't respond to the question for all countries. This was mainly because the response rates varied heavily between countries, and doing so made the data more consistent across national borders.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2015, 10:36:52 PM »

Wow. {slow clap}

One of the most interesting/new to me bits, I think, is how northern China is areligious but southern China is... Taoist mostly I guess? Possibly the pink areas have significant overlap with non-Han ethnicities?  Huh.  Like, I knew that China had some Muslims out west but I was pretty ignorant of most other patterns there.

Also I am wondering about the Sikhs in North America.  The tan bits in Guyana/Suriname, or something microscopically small in Canada that I can't see?

Yeah, the Sikhs are in Vancouver and Toronto.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2015, 12:01:05 AM »

Now that I'm doing that religious maps of Japan series, I'd appreciate realisticidealist's source for Japan if he still has it, since it's almost certainly significantly more recent than the source I've been using.

It's not nearly as detailed as what you've been using, and my methodology was a bit ad hoc. I started with the data here, which has total religious adherents, total religious organizations, and religious organizations by prefecture. I used religious organizations as a proxy for adherents, adjusting for the discrepancy in the national totals to reduce the overrepresentation of Christianity.

The big problem then is that the dataset allows individuals and organizations to be both Buddhist and Shinto. This time, I actually used your data as a guide to disentangling the two. It became a bit of guesswork at times, but I think the result is fairly close.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2015, 10:54:59 AM »

realisticidealist, have you ever considered submitting this to The Atlantic or similar publication? This sounds like the type of thing they'd go for. Not sure what the legalities around getting something to let them use it, though.

I suppose I could look into something like that. I'm not really sure how to approach such things, though.

Also - can you confirm if the two blue Protestant dots south of Hangzhou are Wenzhou & its inland county?

Yes, I believe that's correct. The shapefile I used has it marked as Yongjia, but I believe they're the same.

Wow. {slow clap}

One of the most interesting/new to me bits, I think, is how northern China is areligious but southern China is... Taoist mostly I guess? Possibly the pink areas have significant overlap with non-Han ethnicities?  Huh.  Like, I knew that China had some Muslims out west but I was pretty ignorant of most other patterns there.

Also I am wondering about the Sikhs in North America.  The tan bits in Guyana/Suriname, or something microscopically small in Canada that I can't see?

Yeah, the Sikhs are in Vancouver and Toronto.

Would it be possible to see more detailed maps of Canada's major urban centres?

Yeah, I can do that. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are the most interesting if I remember correctly.

EDIT: While I'm at it, some of the Australian and New Zealand cities are pretty interesting, too.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2015, 11:39:02 AM »

Toronto:


Montreal:


Ottawa:


Vancouver:


Sydney:


Melbourne:


Auckland:
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2015, 12:04:04 PM »

Ireland:


Great Britain:


Switzerland:
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2015, 04:36:01 PM »

I'd love to split up Islam, but there are so few statistics on it with any sort of geographic specificity. I can only think of about two Islamic countries that ask Shia/Sunni/etc. I could estimate it if I had a proxy like ethnicity, but that's not asked that often either. Heck, it's rare to have an Islamic country that even has a census.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2015, 04:54:04 PM »

What are the Protestant divisions in the Republic of Ireland?

There are several Protestant areas in Ireland, but they all have ~200 people or fewer. I can't find much information on them. Most are close to the border with Northern Ireland. There's a handful of blue small areas in Dublin and three in Athlone.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2015, 07:58:03 PM »

Which city is the pocket of Catholicism in northern Iraq centered on?

It's the Nineveh Plains. I don't think it's centered on any one city, but it looks like the largest town in that district is Bakhdida. There's a lot of Orthodox there, too, or at least there were prior to ISIS.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2015, 12:17:59 AM »
« Edited: April 24, 2015, 12:21:04 AM by realisticidealist »

What are the Protestant divisions in the Republic of Ireland?

Realisticidealist, may I ask what units you used to draw Ireland? I note that the Shannon Estuary and Loch Neagh have been 'eaten' by the surrounding places, so to speak.

I used Small Areas.

What is the source of the data for China?

I compiled China based on a number of sources. I started by using ethnicity data from the most recent census to estimate the number of Muslims, Buddhists, Indigenous, and some Taoists. I then used a slightly regressed version of Asia Harvest's estimate of the Christian population, and finally estimated the remaining number of Taoists/Chinese Folk Religionists based on UMich's China Religion Explorer and based on several local surveys by UCLA and others. I assumed the remainder was nonreligious.

I've heard a lot of positive things about my estimate.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2015, 07:27:32 PM »

The brown in Punjab is obviously Sikhism, but what are the brown counties in eastern India?

It looks like Donyi-Polo in Arunachal Pradesh and Sarnaism in Jharkhand. Both indigenous religions.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #15 on: April 28, 2015, 01:44:16 PM »

realisticidealist, have you ever considered submitting this to The Atlantic or similar publication? This sounds like the type of thing they'd go for. Not sure what the legalities around getting something to let them use it, though.

I suppose I could look into something like that. I'm not really sure how to approach such things, though.

More likely it'll be posted without attribution (or any attempt at discussion, for that matter) in another "40 Maps That Explain X" series, unfortunately. Be vigilant.

Probably Vox Maps...

Quote
You must be logged in to read this quote.

Thanks. I was hoping for about +1,000 or so with it, but it just kept climbing to over +3,000. I've actually started on a map that was suggested in the comments: a religious diversity map as measured by Shannon entropy. It will be a bit biased toward Christian countries, but from what I've seen of it it's still pretty interesting.
Logged
RI
realisticidealist
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 14,717


« Reply #16 on: April 28, 2015, 01:44:48 PM »
« Edited: April 28, 2015, 01:47:44 PM by realisticidealist »

REDDIT!? You've cheated on us scolbert08!

Bigger audience. Besides, I posted it here first. Tongue

If I hadn't, someone else would have posted it there. They've posted my maps from here on there before.
Logged
Pages: [1]  
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Terms of Service - DMCA Agent and Policy - Privacy Policy and Cookies

Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Page created in 0.07 seconds with 12 queries.