Talk:Religion in the Faroe Islands

Statistics

I note the pie chart (28 September 2023) is using estimates from US State Department report 2022 of 85% belonging to the state church. My guess is the State Department is getting its figure from https://www.faroeislands.fo/people-society/religion/ which also estimates 85% as members of the state church (and Plymouth Brethren as 13%). However the Faroe Government statistics has 77% belonging to the state church https://hagstova.fo/en/society/culture-and-religion/parishes [corrected duplicated url]. If I go to the actual government statistics bank https://statbank.hagstova.fo/pxweb/en/H2/H2__MT__MT10__MT1002/MT325.px/table/tableViewLayout2/ and look I get 71% (note this is for those 15 and older) for state church, 14% Plymouth Brethren, 11% Christian missionary movements, 3% Charismatic evangelical congregations, 12% that belong to more than one group (nearly 2% of whom are both national church and Plymouth Brethren), 3% who belong to no congregation, 9% who either didn't state or weren't queried. I'm not sure where the first 85% figure for the state church and 13% for Plymouth Brethren came from though there might have been adjustment due to family size and allocating minors to their parents' faith groups. However given that people seem to sometimes belong to more than one religion (12%, not an insignificant figure) I'm not sure how safe it is to use a pie chart which assumes one affiliation only. Erp (talk) 12:48, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

I assume the statistics from the government are more reliable. JimRenge (talk) 15:41, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Hi JimRenge, thanks for this. I note that the Statbank link shares the 2011 figures, so I was hoping to bring the figures a bit more up-to-date. The 2011 stats are mentioned in the article and I mentioned that the 2022 figures are estimates, so hopefully a reader will get both sides of the story. I know that religious stats can be complicated and varied, but I was hoping to keep it simple for easy reading. Definitely not trying to mislead anyone. RockviewLove (talk) 16:11, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

@RockviewLove: I have noticed that you have been spamming ARDA data and "religious freedom" scores by Freedom House throughout many Wikipedia articles, apparently resuming the activity of some users blocked some time ago. The highly questionable reliability of ARDA data was discussed at length between the end of 2022 and early 2023; the main discussion may be found here: Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 395#Association of Religion Data Archives and World Religion Database. There was a general consensus ...to prefer the use of stronger sources, where available. Regarding Freedom House, I do not think that it is a reliable source; it is a private organisation and it is unclear on what criteria its scores are calculated. Giving high visibility, through a dedicated article section, to such organisations and their publications is WP:UNDUE and, yes, spamming. I would ask you to revert all your recent additions of ARDA and Freedom House data. Thank you. Also ping @Erp, @JimRenge.--Æo (talk) 13:50, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

All the figures are government; however, the 85% for the main church might not be reliable. I just noticed and corrected the second URL which had 77% but only has figures for the main church. The third with 71% had more figures, but, is fairly raw data (the 77% might be after the statisticians had adjusted for minor children or might be official enrolled members including minors). The 85% of the first is remarkably close to what you get if you omit those who weren't queried or did not answer from the third source; however, that recalculation doesn't work for the percentage of Plymouth Brethren (unless one also subtracts all the dual members from the Plymouth Brethren and count them solely as the main church). The third set is the most clear cut but cannot be used in a pie chart because of the overlaps. Erp (talk) 14:28, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

I see that there are data from the 2011 Faroese census. I think the article should stick to them, until data from the new census or newer data from the national statistical office are available, instead of using data from the US government or some private organisation. Æo (talk) 14:45, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

I think the statistics of the Faroe government (https://statbank.hagstova.fo/pxweb/en/H2/H2__MT__MT10__MT1002/MT325.px/table/tableViewLayout2/) is probably more reliable than the US State Department report 2022 ("The Faroese government estimates that approximately 85 percent of the population are members of the Church of the Faroe Islands, and approximately 13 percent are members of the Plymouth Brethren.). The US State Department report 2022 does not specify which "Faroese government estimates" they used. JimRenge (talk) 15:50, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Yes, they are definitely the best data available. The data from US websites are groundless and invented, as usual. Æo (talk) 18:54, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

I don't have any issue reverting back to the previous source if issues have been identified with the updated reference. TylerBurden (talk) 20:38, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Yes, it would be good to revert back to the 2011 census data. Æo (talk) 21:53, 2 October 2023 (UTC)