Semester I - Week of 11/23
http://d3tt741pwxqwm0.cloudfront.net/WGBH/sj14/sj14-int-religmap/index.html
Small-group activity:
Form groups of 3 to 4 and discuss the following:
In which areas of the world do you think religion might have a stronger influence on people in their daily lives? Why do you think this?
Discuss your ideas as they may relate to politics, education, economics, or cultural practices.
What do you notice about the way religious groups appear in different regions?
Do you recognize any patterns? If so, what?
Attempt to draw out historical connections, such as the influence of colonization or the spread of ideology, consider the following questions.
Why do you think most of North America and South America are predominantly Christian?
Why are many North African nations Muslim while those in the southern part of the continent are more prone to Christianity?
Why do you think North Korea, which has an ancient Buddhist tradition, is largely a non-religious country today? What about Estonia, which has a Christian tradition?
You will share your group’s ideas with the rest of the class.
About This Activity
Source of the Data
The data presented in this interactive map was drawn from the results of a 2010 Pew Research Center demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories. The study relied on more than 2,500 censuses, surveys, and population registers.
Using the Interactive Map
The interactive contains nine maps with the following titles:
Buddhism
Christianity
Hinduism
Indigenous Religions
Islam
Judaism
Non-Religious People
Other Religions
Prevailing Beliefs
The Prevailing Beliefs map is the first map that you see after launching the interactive. On the map, each country of the world is assigned a color based on the religious group that has the most followers in the population. For example, Thailand is colored red to indicate most Thai people (93.2%) identify with Buddhism. Less than a majority of Togo’s population is Christian (43.7%), yet that country is colored purple because Christianity is the largest group according to percentage of population. The next-largest group (35.6%) is people affiliated with indigenous religions.
Each Religious Group map contains a brief description of the group’s makeup and displays the countries of the world with a color tint that indicates the percentage of the population affiliated with the group. The key shows the percentages associated with each color.
All maps display the breakdown of the eight religious groups for each individual country on rollover or click. A bar graph presents the data from highest percentage to lowest. For example, from the data, students will learn that the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) population is 44.1% Christian, 37.5% Muslim, 10.2% indigenous religions, 8.0% non-religious, and 0.2% other. Less than 0.1% are followers of Buddhism, Hinduism, or Judaism.
Students may navigate from map to map by choosing a map name from the dropdown Menu at the right. They may also zoom in or zoom out to improve their view using the "+" and "-" buttons.
The map is based on national boundaries as of 2010. This addendum contains a table with a breakdown of religious groups for the countries and territories that do not appear in the map. This is a limitation of the map data used to build the interactive and the date it was published, not an intentional or unintentional omission.
In some cases, an omitted country or territory was or is still not officially recognized as independent (e.g., South Sudan, Western Sahara, Kosovo, Palestinian Territories). In others, the place is associated with another country on the map (e.g., Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States). But most often, it is because the size of the country or territory is too small to resolve at the scale being presented; this is true for most of those smaller than 500 square miles in area.
Next to each country name is the breakdown of the population with respect to religious beliefs.