File talk:Protestentism world map.png

Using the quoted source International Religious Freedom Report 2004, I found some mistakes , the map is overstating the % of protestants for several countries :

Austria: According to the 2001 census, membership in major religions are as follows: Roman Catholic Church--74.0 percent; Lutheran and Presbyterian churches (Evangelical Church - Augsburger and Helvetic confessions)�-4.7 percent; Islamic community�-4.2 percent; Jewish community--0.1 percent; Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, and Bulgarian)�-2.2 percent; other Christian churches�-0.9 percent; other non-Christian religious groups�-0.2 percent. Atheists accounted for 12 percent; 2 percent did not indicate a religious affiliation In other words less than 15 % protestants in Austria the map shows something different.

Netherlands: Approximately 31 percent of the population consider themselves Roman Catholic, 14 percent Dutch Reformed, 6 percent Muslim, 6 percent Calvinist Reformed, 3 percent non-Christian (Hindu, Jewish, or Buddhist), and 40 percent atheist or agnostic. In other words just about 20 % , the map shows the same color as for Germany

Germany: The Evangelical Church, which includes the Lutheran, Uniate, and Reformed Protestant Churches, has 27 million members, who constitute 33 percent of the population. Statistical offices in the Evangelical Church estimate that 1.1 million members (4 percent of the membership) attend weekly religious services. The Catholic Church has a membership of 27.2 million, or 33.4 percent of the population. According to the Church's statistics, 4.8 million Catholics (17.5 percent of the membership) actively participate in weekly services. According to government estimates, there are approximately 3.1 to 3.5 million Muslims living in the country (approximately 3.4 percent to 3.9 percent of the population). Statistics on mosque attendance were not available. So at the time of this report , 33 % protestanst however same color as for the Netherlands.

The map should be updated for these mistakes and carefully checked for more mistakes (notably the baltic states look incorrect to me as well).

Furthermore , due to the increasing secularization, the number of protestants has dropped in 2011 to less than 20 % in the Netherlands and less than 30 % in Germany.

So either the map sould be named historical 2001 status of protestentism or the coloring should be updated to the current status. Ruud64 (talk) 22:10, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I actually checked out the latest freedom report issued late 2010. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2010/index.htm :

Netherlands

Society has become increasingly secularized. In general church membership continued to decline. : According to a 2006 study by the government's Social Cultural Planning Bureau, the number of persons who are church members declined steadily from 76 percent of the population in 1958 to 30 percent in 2006 (16 percent Catholic and 14 percent Protestant). Only 16 percent regularly attend church. Catholics constitute the largest religious group in the country.

So with 14 % protestants the color should be changed.

Austria:

According to 2009 estimates, membership in major religious groups is as follows: Roman Catholic Church, 66 percent; Muslim community, 4.2 percent; Protestants, including Lutheran and Swiss Reformed Churches (Evangelical Church-Augsburger and Helvetic confessions), 3.9 percent; Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, and Bulgarian), 2.2 percent; other Christian churches, 0.9 percent; Jehovah's Witnesses, 0.3 percent; other non-Christian religious groups, 0.2 percent; and Jewish community, 0.1 percent. Atheists account for 12 percent, and 2 percent do not indicate a religious affiliation.

There are actually less protestants than muslims in austria. The color on the map is clearly incorrect.

Estonia

The country has an area of 17,666 square miles and a population of 1.3 million. The population is 13.6 percent Evangelical Lutheran and 12.8 percent Orthodox. Other Christian groups, including Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics, and Pentecostals, constitute 1.4 percent. Thirty two percent of the population is unspecified or other, 34.1 percent is unaffiliated, and 6.1 percent does not identify with a religion.

Most religious adherents among the Russian speaking population, who mainly reside in the capital or the northeastern part of the country, are Orthodox.

In other words the map is incorrect for quite a number of countries, it was already for the 2004 status and is even more so for the year 2009.

Ruud64 (talk) 22:32, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

scandinavia

The scandinavian coutries are shown as being more than 90 % protestant, the socalled source for this map the International Religious Freedom Report 2004 however is not backing this up.

2004 report on Sweden: The country has a total area of 173,732 square miles, and its population is an estimated 9.0 million. Approximately 79.6 percent of the population belongs to the Church of Sweden. Since the Church and the State separated in 2000, a number of people have left the Church each year. In 2003, 58,746 people left the Church. According to studies carried out by the Church of Sweden, the main reason for people leaving appears to be economic; membership means a tax of 1.19 percent of members' incomes. In 2003, the Church of Sweden baptized 67.6 percent of children, a figure that has declined steadily over the past 2 decades. Confirmations have declined even more sharply; 37.6 of Swedish children were confirmed in 2003, as opposed to 80 percent in 1970.

The latest report the 2010 issue states for Sweden : Religious membership or affiliation is concentrated in a few major denominations. According to the Church of Sweden (Lutheran), an estimated 71.3 percent (6,664,000 persons) of citizens are members; other Protestant groups total approximately 4.4 percent (400,000) of the population. Membership in the Church of Sweden has decreased steadily since it separated from the state in 2000. During 2009, 73,396 members left the Church (1.6 percent of registered members). Church-led studies found that individuals left primarily for economic reasons: membership carries a tax on income, normally less than 1 percent (separated members can still attend services). That is in 2009 75,8 % of the Swedes were protestants - again as for other countries (see above) less than shown on the map. Same for the other scandinavian countries none of them has a population that is >90 % protestant and some not even >80 %. Besides for the countries listed above, the map is not correct for the scandinavian countries. Ruud64 (talk) 21:21, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

and yet another mistake - the map shows a different color for Germany and Switzerland with for the latter a larger than 40 % protestants color.

However as per the 2004 freedom report:

The breakdown between the different religious denominations has shifted noticeably over the past several years. Traditionally, over 95 percent of the population had been split evenly between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic Church, but since the 1970s, there has been a steady increase of persons formally renouncing their church membership. In the Roman Catholic Church, immigration from southern Europe has countered this trend. The arrival of immigrants from other areashas contributed to the noticeable growth of religious communities that had little presence in the country in the past. According to the Government's Statistics Office, membership in religious denominations is as follows: 41.8 percent Roman Catholic; 33.0 percent Protestant; 1.8 percent Orthodox; 0.2 percent Old Catholic; 0.2 percent other Christian groups; 4.3 percent Muslim; 0.2 percent Jewish; 0.8 percent other religions (Buddhist, Hindi, and other); 11.1 percent no formal creed.

again a "mistake" resulting in overstating the % of protestants.

As per the above for other countries a rather systematic error - every single time the map is showing a higher % of protestants not a lower one.

Ruud64 (talk) 20:40, 26 April 2011 (UTC)