Religion data on City-Data breathtakingly inaccurate (Mammoth Lakes: live, statistics, design)

[KeithM7]

I've been looking at the religion data for California Counties. I know there's a disclaimer in small writing reminding readers that the site doesn't vouch for the accuracy. Nonetheless, some of the "data" is jaw droopingly askew.

Scroll down to Religious statistics for Mono County: //www.city-data.com/county/Mono_County-CA.html

Apparently, 90% of the population of Mono County are Catholic.

First of all I doubt any county in the US is 90% Catholic. Secondly, Mono County of all places! Most of the population lives in one town, Mammoth Lakes. Anybody who has spent any amount of time there will be amused by this. But generally the religious "data" doesn't seem to be very accurate in general for any of the California counties. The "None" category always seems to be either grossly inflated or impossibly small (as in this case).

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by KeithM7

I've been looking at the religion data for California Counties. I know there's a disclaimer in small writing reminding readers that the site doesn't vouch for the accuracy. Nonetheless, some of the "data" is jaw droopingly askew.

Scroll down to Religious statistics for Mono County: //www.city-data.com/county/Mono_County-CA.html

Apparently, 90% of the population of Mono County are Catholic.

First of all I doubt any county in the US is 90% Catholic. Secondly, Mono County of all places! Most of the population lives in one town, Mammoth Lakes. Anybody who has spent any amount of time there will be amused by this. But generally the religious "data" doesn't seem to be very accurate in general for any of the California counties. The "None" category always seems to be either grossly inflated or impossibly small (as in this case).

Oh, I am sure a few counties in the New England States and parts of the Midwest would be 90% Roman Catholic, at least nominally. It's the majority religion in Rhode Island now, for example.

[KeithM7]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

Oh, I am sure a few counties in the New England States and parts of the Midwest would be 90% Roman Catholic, at least nominally. It's the majority religion in Rhode Island now, for example.

I'm sure there are counties with large catholic majorities in that part of the country. But not 90%. Nine out of ten people is A LOT. Even in bible belt territory you'd be hard pressed to find a 90% Christian identification county let alone being members of the same church or denomination. Even in instances of small counties with unusually high demographic homogeneity you would not expect such results.

[Mr5150]

In my part of CA most are religious. Not Catholic so much. I think while Mono county is fairly religious, it is most definitely Not mostly Catholic.

[KeithM7]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

In my part of CA most are religious. Not Catholic so much. I think while Mono county is fairly religious, it is most definitely Not mostly Catholic.

The Catholic population seems to be vastly overestimated for many counties in California. Fair enough many of them have large Hispanic populations but even if we were to falsely assume that ALL of them were Catholic adherents the numbers do not really add up. The number of adherents always seems unrealistically out proportion to the number of congregations even if you were to assume Catholic congregations are, on the whole, larger.

[mrcnkwcz]

take it from someone in Buffalo--CD annual snowfall totals are a bit off, too. Going off memory from when I referenced them last year, I think suburbs of cities are assumed to have the same snowfall figures as the cities themselves, which given microclimates within a metro area is not a good assumption.

[KeithM7]

Found this:

Spoiler

http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/RCMSST.asp

This is the source of the data on religion for Counties (which is the same as you'll find for the city pages).

Defining Membership: The most critical methodological problem was that of defining church membership. Since there is no generally acceptable definition of church membership, it was felt that the designation of members rested finally with the denominations themselves. In an effort to achieve comparability of data, however, two major categories were established: "Members” and “Total adherents.” Members was defined as “all individuals with full membership status.” Total adherents was defined as “all members, including full members, their children and 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,’ and the like.”


Note: There are 39 counties reporting more adherents than total population. Reasons for this discrepancy will no doubt differ from county to county, but the most reasonable explanations would include U.S. Census undercount, church membership overcount, and county of residence differing from county of membership. This is especially likely in Virginia where many cities have been separated from their adjoining counties.

Yes, what could possibly go wrong with this data?

[cb73]

I don't think it's possible to get an accurate count for religion. Is this self-reporting? Church attendance?

I have a good friend that states she's a staunch Catholic--which means that she got her kids baptized. No one in the family attends church--I don't think her kids have ever been to church--but if she were asked on a census or survey about religion I've no doubt she'd list everyone in the family as Catholic.

A better sense (to me) of the religion of an area is to look at the Yellow Pages and see how many churches there are, and what denomination.

[KeithM7]

Originally Posted by cb73

A better sense (to me) of the religion of an area is to look at the Yellow Pages and see how many churches there are, and what denomination.

Yes this is sort of how I've been looking at it. Now I am primarily considering just the number of congregations. City Data does report that and seems fairly accurate since this data is more straightforward. I can adjust in my head the fact that Catholic churches often have larger membership per congregation. Just not remotely to the extent some of this skewed data might suggest.

[505HPC6Z06]

Originally Posted by KeithM7

I've been looking at the religion data for California Counties. I know there's a disclaimer in small writing reminding readers that the site doesn't vouch for the accuracy. Nonetheless, some of the "data" is jaw droopingly askew.

Scroll down to Religious statistics for Mono County: //www.city-data.com/county/Mono_County-CA.html

Apparently, 90% of the population of Mono County are Catholic.

First of all I doubt any county in the US is 90% Catholic. Secondly, Mono County of all places! Most of the population lives in one town, Mammoth Lakes. Anybody who has spent any amount of time there will be amused by this. But generally the religious "data" doesn't seem to be very accurate in general for any of the California counties. The "None" category always seems to be either grossly inflated or impossibly small (as in this case).

Why do you doubt the numbers? Church only lasts an hour and its just one time a week