Church Statistics

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Population and Education, Social statistics
Dorthe Larsen
+45 23 49 83 26

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Church Statistics 2017

The statistics cover the people’s relation to the national church. Furthermore it accounts for the number of different religious ceremonies, among other baptisms, confirmations and funerals.

The production of statistics on the national church was introduced in 1974. There have not been produced statistics on the national church for the years 2003-2006. For the years 1984-2002 statistics on recognized religious communities, their members and religious ceremonies corresponding to the religious ceremonies of the national church was also produced.

Statistical presentation

The statistics is produced for parishes, deaneries and dioceses.

The basis for the statistics is partly data from the Central Population Register (CPR) and partly data on religious ceremonies reported from each parish. The data on religious ceremonies is received from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs.

The statistics based on data from CPR concerns the number of members of the National Church, registrations and resignations as well as births and deaths.

The statistics based on data from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs concerns baptism, confirmations, funerals, persons presented to the church, number of banns and religious blessings.

Statistical processing

Daily deliveries from the Central Population Register (CPR) and yearly delivery from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs is basis for the statistics.

Data is not checked for errors.

Relevance

The Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, interest groups within the ecclesiastical area and the media are using the statistics for public and private planning and as input to the public debate.

Accuracy and reliability

The statistics are based on the Central Population Register (CPR). The quality of the data is very high.

The the data from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs is also considered to be of high quality.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics concerning the National Church is published app. 45 days after the end of the year.

Comparability

The statistics on the National Church has been produced since 1974. Until 1984 the statistics were exclusively based on data from the the Central Personal Register (CPR) while the statistics for the years 1984-2002 have been supplemented with a survey on the recognized religious communities. In this period the statistics is comparable. For certain main figures comparable time series from 1980 were disseminated.

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published annually in a Danish press release and are presented in the Statistical Yearbook. In the Statbank these statistics can be found under the subjects Members of the National Church and Religious ceremonies. For further information go to the subject pages for Members of the National Church and Religious ceremonies.