Bahá'í statistics

Statistical estimates of the worldwide Bahá'í population are difficult to arrive at. The religion is almost entirely contained in a single, organised community, 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, and the only religion to have grown faster than the population of the world in all major areas over the last century. The 5-7 million figure for Baha'is worldwide almost certainly started with the first publication of the World Christian Encyclopedia. Before that appeared, no third party figures were available.

Official estimates of the worldwide Bahá'í population come from the Bahá'í World Centre, which claimed "more than five million Bahá’ís" as early as 1991 "in some 100,000 localities." The official agencies of the religion have published data on numbers of local and national spiritual assemblies, Counselors and their auxiliaries, countries of representation, languages, and publishing trusts. Less often, they publish membership statistics. In recent years, the United States Bahá'í community has been releasing detailed membership statistics.

Definition of membership

In the 1930s the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada began requiring new adherents to sign a declaration of faith, 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 original purpose of signing a declaration card was to allow followers to apply for lawful exemption from active military service. The signature of a card later became optional in Canada, but in the US is still used for records and administrative requirements. Many countries follow the pattern of the US and Canada.

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. Members receive regular mailings unless they request not to be contacted.

Difficulties in enumeration

The fact that the religion is diffuse rather than concentrated is the major barrier to demographic research by outsiders. Surveys and censuses (except government census, which ask individuals their religion in many countries) simply cannot yet be conducted with such a scope, especially not at the level required to accurately gauge religious minorities. In some countries the Bahá'í Faith is illegal and Bahá'ís endure some degree of persecution, making it difficult for even Bahá'ís to maintain a count. The first survey of the religion known comes from an unpublished work in 1919–1920 gathered by John Esslemont and had been intended to be part of his well known Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era. In it, consulting various individuals, he summarizes the religion's presence in Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Turkestan, and the United States.

The World Christian Database (WCD), and its predecessor the World Christian Encyclopedia, has reviewed religious populations around the world and released results of their investigations at various times. The Bahá'í Faith has consistently placed high in the statistics of growth over these various releases of data - 1970 to 1985, 1990 to 2000, 2000 to 2005, and across the whole range of their data from 1970 to 2010.

From the early 1960s until the late 1990s, the US Baha'i population went from around 10,000 to 140,000 on official rolls, but the members with known addresses in 1998 was about half.

Most denominations make no effort at all to maintain a national membership database and must rely on local churches or surveys of the general population. Local church membership rolls are often maintained poorly because there may be no need for an official membership list (Bahá'ís at least must maintain accurate voting lists) and local congregations sometimes do not provide their denomination's membership data even when asked. Counting American Jews, half of whom are married to non-Jews and the majority of whom do not attend a synagogue, is immensely difficult. Estimates for the numbers of American Muslims and Eastern Orthodox often vary by a factor of two.

Worldwide figures

	1928	1949	1968	± 1986	2006
National Spiritual Assemblies	7	11	81	165	179
Local Spiritual Assemblies	102	595	6,840	18,232
Countries where the Bahá'í Faith is established: independent countries	36	92		187	191
Localities where Bahá'ís reside	573	2315	31,572	>116,000	127,381(2001)
Indigenous tribes, races, and ethnic groups			1,179	>2,100	2,112
Languages into which Bahá'í literature is translated			417	800
Bahá'í Publishing Trusts			9	26	33(2001)

Bahá’í sources

• The 2013 US national website states that there are: "more than 5 million" Bahá'ís in the world.
• A 2005 review of a book for sale by the US Bahá'í Distribution Service included a review by William Collins noting "roughly six million Bahá'ís".
• 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.
• 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."
• As early as 1991 official estimates were of "more than five million Bahá’ís … resident in some 100,000 localities in every part of the world" which is still in use as of 2013.
• A 1987 report, "Achievements of the Seven Year Plan" published in Bahá'í News (July, 1987,) pages 2–7, reports 4.74 million Bahá'ís in 1986 growing at a rate of 31% over 1979, or 4.4% per year on average.

Other sources

From 2005 and newer

"The Baha'i Faith is the only religion to have grown faster in every United Nations region over the past 100 years than the general population; Baha’i was thus the fastest-growing religion between 1910 and 2010, growing at least twice as fast as the population of almost every UN region."

• The 2010 Association of Religion Data Archives estimate is of 7.3 million (based partly on World Christian Encyclopedia,) when you total up countries with over total populations over 200000 people (some 186 countries). However it estimated no Bahá'ís in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the (North) Democratic Republic of Korea, Kosovo, Latvia, Macedonia, Mayotte, and Montenegro. However some of these countries are documented to have Bahá'ís. See Bahá'í Faith in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there is mention of Bahá'ís in Croatia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
• The CIA World Factbook reports 0.11% of the world which in its 2010 estimate works out to 7.8 million Bahá'ís.
• The World Religion Database states there are 7.3 million Bahá'ís in 2010.
• The World Factbook states that Bahá'ís make up 0.12% of the world based on a 2007 estimate, corresponding to 7.9 million people.
• The 2005 Association of Religion Data Archives estimate is of 7.6 million which is also echoed elsewhere.
• 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 1960s."

from 2000 to 2004

• Encyclopædia Britannica in mid-2004 estimated a total of 7.5 million Bahá’ís residing in 218 countries.Worldwide Adherents of All Religions, Mid-2004 Its statistics are derived from the World Christian Encyclopedia.
• 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 [are] estimated in 2001 at 5 million."
• In 2003, The World Book Encyclopedia reports that "there are about 5,500,000 Bahá’ís worldwide."(registration required)
• The World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001,p 4 estimated 7.1 million Bahá'ís in the world in 2000, representing 218 countries. The same source estimated 5.7 million in 1990. Its definition of membership is broader than the official Bahá'í definition and would include people who attend Bahá'í gatherings regularly even if they have not declared their faith or persons who state they are Bahá'ís in government censuses as a result of reading about the religion or hearing about it on the radio.
• 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."

• adherents.com estimates 7 million Bahá’ís in 2000 based on research from David Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2000, and the Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org.

pre-2000

• In 1998, the Academic American Encyclopedia said that the Bahá’ís "are estimated to number about 2 million."
• 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 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."
• In 2001, Paul Oliver wrote in World Faiths that there were "approximately five million Bahá’ís" in 1963.

See also

• Bahá'í Faith by country
• Statistics on National Spiritual Assemblies
• Religions by country
• Islam by country
• Judaism by country
• Hinduism by country
• Christianity by country
• Sikhism by country
• No Faith by Country

External links

• Bahá'í World Statistics
• adherents.com - A website about religious adherents of numerous faiths
  • adherents.com - Specific compiled stats on Bahá'í communities