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.
Contents
- Definition of membership
- Difficulties in enumeration
- Recent
- Early
- From 2005 and newer
- from 2000 to 2004
- 1980s to 2000
- 1950s 1980s
- References
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.
Recent
Early
From 2005 and newer
In 2016 the Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2016 noted just over 7.8 million Bahá'ís in the world in 2015, having grown at an overall rate of 2.79% across the century 1910 to 2010. The countries with the largest Bahá'í populations in 2015 were, (starting with the largest): India, the US, Kenya, Viet Nam, Congo DR, Philippines, Zambia, South Africa, Iran and Bolivia, ranging upwards from 232,000 to just over 2 million in India. The countries with the highest per capita percentage of Bahá'ís, where a country has over 100,000 people, were, (starting with the highest): Tonga, Belize, Kiribati, Sao Tome & Principe, Bolivia, Zambia, Muaritius, Guyana, Saint Vincent, and Vanuatu, ranging upwards from 1.4% of the national population to 3.5%. The countries with the fastest annual growth from 2000-2015 per annum, where a country has over 100,000 people, were, (starting with the fastest): Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Western Sahara, South Sudan, and Niger, ranging from 3.90% growth per year up to 9.56%. For the period 1970-2000 the region with the highest growth was Central Asia at over 25% starting at near no Bahá'ís. Over the same period the region with the lowest growth was Western Europe at just over 1% growth, (keeping in mind Europe's overall populations growth was actually negative from the 1990s coming down from about 0.6% in 1970.)