The opening paragraphs on the site's home page say it all: "Adherents.com is a growing collection of over 52,000 adherent statistics and religious geography citations -- references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc. Basically, researchers can use this site to answer such questions as "How many Methodists live in Washington, D.C.?", "What are the major religions of South Korea?", or "What percentage of the world is Sikh?" We present data from both primary research sources such as government census reports, statistical sampling surveys and organizational reporting, as well as citations from secondary literature which mention adherent statistics. Adherents.com is an Internet initiative and is not affiliated with any religious, political, educational, or commercial organization. Adherents.com is the 2nd most frequently visited general religion site on the Internet." This site is a treasure trove of data on various religious groups. The level of detail sometimes goes down to the county level in the US. Come here first when you need head counts for religious groups.

What do American Catholics believe? How many Americans claim to be Lutheran? Where do American Muslims live? A source of reliable, scientifically gathered data on these and similar questions used to be very difficult to find. The American Religion Data Archive, a project supported by the Lilly Endowment, gathers together such studies and makes them accessible on the World Wide Web. This site is very well designed, with easy navigation and powerful search tools. It is sure to become a standard resource in years to come.

Most American adults agree on what adults should do to help children grow. But few of them do these things. This study, commissioned by Lutheran Brotherhood and conducted by Gallup documents this divide between what people believe and what they do. This site makes the report available in various ways in Adobe Acrobat's PDF format. If you do not already have the free reader on your system, you will need to download it. Get the Acrobat Plug-in. In addition, Lutheran Brotherhood allows you to survey your own attitudes and actions online and compare them to the survey. They also provide action items to allow congregations to encourage adults to act in ways that help children become caring adults themselves.