Newsgroup: it.cultura.religioni.bahai
Titolo: {bahai} FALSE Statistics of Membership

 
http://members.tripod.com/~fglaysher/bahai.htm

 presenting accurate membership numbers.
You are entitled to yours skepticism, of course.  I find it highly
_ironic_ (that was the word I was laughing so hard I couldn't remember
it) that someone will on the one hand suggest that there are essentially
no Baha'is in Europe and on the other hand, poste a message to that
effect to it.cultura.religioni.bahai, an Italian language newsgroup,
given that Italian is the official language of only one country that I
know of, a European one.  We went through the it.cultura.bahai drill a
few months back.  The Italians found it absurd to suggest there were
essentially no Baha'is in Europe.  Chris Manvell, and perhaps John
Mcleod are Baha'is in England who contribute to the newsgroup
discussions from time to time.  Brian Walker spent several years in
Germany.  I visted Germany for a few weeks and I certainly did find
Baha'is in Germany.
The EB article may or may not be accurate, but what is inaccurate is the
assessment that there are essentially no Baha'is in Europe.  That sort
of statistical bias is what pervades Juan's estimate.
Might I suggest to Fred that if he is going to suggest that certain
people don't exist, he might do well _not_ to cc them to that effect,
even in a language they don't read.
Blessings!
- Pat
ko...@ameritel.net
Sent via Deja.com 
http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

 discussions from time to time.
Actually we're both in Scotland but was it my Bahainess or my Englishness
you doubted enough to throw in the 'perhaps'?
A couple of points on this Bahai numbers debate.  Yes the Bahai numbers in
Europe are demographically insignificant.  But that is itself trivial
because the most optimistic claim of the total numbers in the world (say 9
million) is itself demographically insignificant.  The Baha'is are between
0.5% and 1.5% of the world's population seems to be a reasonable guess.
On a recent visit to Australia I was given some reliable and interesting
numbers.  I didn't take notes so these are from memory.  The membership
rolls had 14000 members including adults, youth, and children.  The Bahai
authorities themselves recognised that that included some who no longer
considered themselves Baha'is but hadn't formally resigned.  The Bahais
authorities guessed the true membership at around 12000. The Australian
government has a nation-wide census which includes a question on religion.
9000 people (adults youths and children) identified themselves as Baha'is
(or were so identified by their parents). The census form was considered a
little difficult to fill in especially for a non-native speaker.
One can take this many ways.  One could for instance say that the
membership rolls were more than 50% too high.  One could for instance say
that the census broadly confirmed the membership estimate of the Bahai
authorities to within about 20%.
The lesson to be learned seems to me to be sure of what you are counting
and to be sure that it can be counted.  The easiest thing to count is
something that is already counted.  I suggest the Baha'i Faith could
easily total up the number of people who voted in Unit conventions around
the world.  While this would have little to do with the number of people
who believe in Baha'u'llah it would stand a reasonable chance of being
accurate and would be indicative of how administratively active the Faith
is. Personally I would anticipate a figure significantly less than one
million but I might be way wrong.  Anybody know the figures for the US?