Glossary

Adherent
A person who identifies with some religious body; includes all members and their children plus the estimated number of other participants who are not considered members; for example, the “baptized,” “those not confirmed,” “those not eligible for communion,” “those regularly attending services,” etc.

Cartogram
Displays statistical information in diagrammatic form; these maps are often distorted to reflect non-geographic information such as population

Religion Characteristics

  • Bible College Support: The degree to which a denomination is formally invested in Bible colleges
  • Central Authority: The degree to which each denomination is characterized by the consolidation of authority in a broad hierarchy
  • Giving: The degree to which each denomination tithed
  • Higher Education Support: The degree to which a denomination is formally invested in higher education, including colleges, and universities but not including seminaries and Bible colleges
  • Publishing: This typology includes several components. In addition to providing the number of periodicals associated with American denominations, the typology also includes denominational membership per periodical

Congregation
The local unit of any religious body; any local gathering of believers for worship

Denominational Families
Groupings of denominations into clusters with similar doctrinal and institutional lineages, with an eye to schisms, mergers, the emergence of new denominations and the end of others

Member
An individual with full member status of a religious body (as defined by each religious body)

Religion Denomination
A sub-group within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity

Religion Family
A system of beliefs, values, worship, and conduct involving the acceptance of and faith in a supernatural being, power, or force and the efforts to maintain a relationship with that being/force

Tree Map
Visualizes hierarchical (tree-structured) data as a set of nested rectangles; the rectangles represent multi dimensions based on color and size