Bahá'í statistics

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Bahá'í Faith

Central figures

Bahá'u'lláh The Báb · `Abdu'l-Bahá

Key scripture

Kitáb-i-Aqdas · Kitáb-i-Íqán The Hidden Words The Seven Valleys

Institutions

Administrative Order The Guardianship Universal House of Justice Spiritual Assemblies

History

Bahá'í history · Timeline Bábís · Shaykh Ahmad

Notable individuals

Shoghi Effendi Martha Root · Táhirih Badí‘ · Apostles Hands of the Cause

See also

Symbols · Laws Teachings · Literature Calendar · Divisions Pilgrimage · Prayer Index of Bahá'í Articles This box: view • talk • edit

Statistical estimates of the worldwide Bahá'í population are difficult to judge. The religion is almost entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical community, but the Bahá'í population is spread out into almost every country and ethnicity in the world, being recognized as the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. In countries where Bahá'ís endure some degree of persecution, membership and organizational data is not made public.

Official estimates of the worldwide Bahá'í population come from the Bahá'í World Centre, which claims "more than five million Bahá’ís... in some 100,000 localities." The official agencies of the religion often publish data on numbers of local and national spiritual assemblies, Counselors and their auxiliaries, countries of representation, languages, and publishing trusts. [1]. Less often, they publish membership statistics. In recent years, the United States Bahá'í community has been releasing detailed membership statistics.^[1]

Contents 1 Definition of membership 2 Difficulties in enumeration 3 Worldwide figures 3.1 Bahá’í sources 3.2 Other sources 4 The Americas 4.1 North America 4.1.1 The United States 4.1.1.1 Alaska 4.1.1.2 Hawai'i 4.1.2 Canada 4.2 South America 4.2.1 Chile 4.2.2 Bolivia 5 Asia 5.1 Afghanistan 5.2 India 5.3 Iran 5.4 Malaysia 5.5 The Philippines 5.6 Turkmenistan 5.7 United Arab Emirates 5.8 Vietnam 6 Africa 6.1 Cameroon 6.2 Niger 6.3 Nigeria 6.4 South Africa 7 Europe 7.1 United Kingdom 7.2 Denmark 7.3 Moldova 7.4 Norway 7.5 Ukraine 8 See also 9 External links 10 References

[edit] Definition of membership

In the 1930s the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada began requiring new adherents to sign a declaration of faith, stating their belief in Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and `Abdu'l-Bahá, and an understanding that there are laws and institutions to obey (the card does not specify them). The purpose of signing a declaration card was to allow followers to apply for lawful exemption from active military service.^[2] The signature of a card later became optional in Canada, but in the US is still used for records and administrative requirements.^[3] Many countries follow the pattern of the US and Canada.

Other than signing a card and being acknowledged by a Spiritual Assembly, there is no initiation or requirement of attendance to remain on the official roll sheets. Members receive regular mailings unless they request not to be contacted.

[edit] Difficulties in enumeration

The fact that the religion is diffuse rather than concentrated is the major barrier to demographic research by outsiders. Surveys and censuses (except government census, which ask individuals their religion in many countries) simply cannot yet be conducted with such a scope, especially not at the level required to accurately gauge religious minorities. In some countries the Bahá'í Faith is illegal, making it difficult for even Bahá'ís to maintain a count.

The large growth of the religion in the 20th century means that most Bahá'í's were not born into the religion of their grandparents, or of the society around them, combined with the Bahá'í principle of independent investigation, makes it difficult to compare Bahá'í statistics with religions in which people are automatically assigned to statistics at birth. Some would say that this results in an overcount for major religions; others point out that as a sociological reality, Baha'i membership is often more transient than say, Catholic identity.

Rapid growth and a spotty retention rate also make membership statistics difficult to maintain, because a certain number of Bahá'ís move on to other religions without asking to be removed from the Bahá'í membership rolls. From the mid 1960's until 2000, the US Baha'i population went from 10,000 to 140,000 on official rolls, but the percent of members with known addresses dropped to fifty percent.

On the other hand, most denominations make no effort at all to maintain a national membership database and must rely on local churches or surveys of the general population. Local church membership rolls are often maintained poorly because there may be no need for an official membership list (Bahá'ís at least must maintain accurate voting lists) and local congregations sometimes do not provide their denomination's membership data even when asked. Counting American Jews, half of whom are married to non-Jews and the majority of whom do not attend a synagogue, is immensely difficult. Estimates for the numbers of American Muslims and Eastern Orthodox often vary by a factor of two.

[edit] Worldwide figures

The following table was provided by the Bahá'í World Center Department of Statistics to view growth and basic statistics.[2]

	1968	± 1986	2001
National Spiritual Assemblies	81	165	182
Local Spiritual Assemblies	6,840	18,232	11,740
Countries where the Bahá'í Faith is established: independent countries		187	190
Countries where the Bahá'í Faith is established: - dependent territories/overseas departments		45	46
Localities where Bahá'ís reside	31,572	>116,000	127,381
Indigenous tribes, races, and ethnic groups	1,179	>2,100	2,112
Languages into which Bahá'í literature is translated	417	800	802
Bahá'í Publishing Trusts	9	26	33

[edit] Bahá’í sources

• The official international website claims to have "more than five million Bahá’ís resident in some 100,000 localities in every part of the world."
• The current US national website states that there are: "more than 5 million" Bahá'ís in the world.
• The introduction to a 1995 printing of The Promise of World Peace (Special Ideas, Heltonville, IN) claims: "more than five million members… in over 120,000 localities… in over 230 countries or significant territories."
• A pamphlet currently published by the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia estimates: "At present there are over 6 million Bahá'ís who live in more than 118,000 localities in over 200 countries and territories."
• A 1997 statement by the NSA of South Africa wrote: "…the Bahá'í Faith enjoys a world-wide following in excess of six million people."
• The Department of Statistics, Bahá'í World Centre, does not provide an estimated total, but claims that in 2001 there were 11,740 local Spiritual Assemblies, and 127,381 localities in 236 countries and territories. [3]

[edit] Other sources

• Encyclopædia Britannica in mid-2004 estimated a total of 7.5 million Bahá’ís residing in 218 countries.[4] Its statistics are derived from the World Christian Encyclopedia.
• The World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001,p 4 estimated 7.1 million Bahá'ís in the world in 2000, representing 218 countries. The same source estimated 5.7 million in 1990.[5] Its definition of membership is broader than the official Bahá'í definition and would include people who attend Bahá'í gatherings regularly even if they have not declared their faith or persons who state they are Bahá'ís in government censuses as a result of reading about the religion or hearing about it on the radio.
• In 2005, the Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, vol 2, pg. 739, (ISBN 0-02-865733-0) records that:

"In the early twenty-first century the Bahá’ís number close to six million in more than two hundred countries. The number of adherents rose significantly in the late twentieth century from a little more than one million at the end of the 1960's."

• adherents.com estimates 7 million Bahá’ís in 2000 based on research from David Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2000, and the Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org.
• In 2003, The World Book Encyclopedia reports that "there are about 5,500,000 Bahá’ís worldwide." [6](registration required)
• In 2001, Paul Oliver wrote in World Faiths that there were "approximately five million Bahá’ís" in 1963.
• In 2004, the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa vol 1, reports that "By 1900, the community… had reached 50,000-100,000… Bahá’ís worldwide [are] estimated in 2001 at 5 million."
• In 2000, Denis MacEoin wrote in the Handbook of Living Religions that:

"the movement has had remarkable success in establishing itself as a vigorous contender in the mission fields of Africa, India, parts of South America, and the Pacific, thus outstripping other new religions in a world-wide membership of perhaps 4 million and an international spread recently described as second only to that of Christianity. The place of Baha'ism among world religions now seems assured."

• In 1997, Dictionary of World Religions estimated "five million Bahá’ís" in the world.
• In 1997, Religions of the World published: "today there are about 5 million" Bahá’ís.
• In 1993, the Columbia Encyclopedia published: "There are about 5 million Bahá’ís in the world."
• In 1998, the Academic American Encyclopedia said that the Bahá’ís "are estimated to number about 2 million."
• In 1995 the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion states: "In 1985, it was estimated that there were between 1.5 to 2 million Baha'is, with the greatest areas of recent growth in Africa, India, and Vietnam."

[edit] The Americas

The Bahá'í Faith has a long history in the Americas, particularly in the United States and Canada, where it was established in 1894 by a Lebanese Bahá'í immigrant to the United States, Ibrahim Kheiralla.

[edit] North America

[edit] The United States

In the United States, hosting one of the most prominent Bahá'í communities, the official estimate in Feb 2008 was 159,692 members on record, excluding Alaska and Hawai'i.

In 1894 Thornton Chase became the first American Bahá'í. By the end of 1894 four other Americans had also become Bahá’ís. In 1909, the first National Convention was held with 39 delegates from 36 cities. In 1944 every state in the nation had at least one local Bahá’í administrative body.[7] The list of Bahá'ís from the 1890s to the present is a composite from various sources. The figures before 1934 are the best estimates possible, based on the US Religious Census (information collected by the Bahá'ís based on various definitions of membership). The figures from 1940 to the 1960s or 1970s come from Bahá'í News, where the figures were occasionally published. From the 1970s and on, the staff at the National Teaching Committee compiled the data from national membership records.

In an informal letter in 1998, Dr. Robert Stockman, the coordinator of the Research Office of the US Bahá'í National Center wrote:

"The National Center, obviously, is not in the position to decide which cards were signed in good faith and which were not. The National Spiritual Assembly instituted a two-tier process about 1974, of (1) declaration, and (2) enrollment, the latter involving a meeting with the declarant to ascertain that the person understands what s/he is doing. The two-stage process was inaugurated because of abuses in mass-teaching campaigns during 1968-72."

In December, 1999, the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States stated that out of the 140,000 adult (15 and over) members on the rolls, only 70,000 had known addresses [8]. It is reasonable to assume that affiliation on the part of some individuals disengaged from participation in the Bahá'í community over extended periods is open to question. The American Religious Identity Survey (ARIS) conducted in 2001, with a sample size of 50,000, estimated that there were 84,000 self identifying adult (21 and over) Baha'is in the United States.[9]

The US National Teaching Committee states that anyone requesting to leave the religion is taken off membership lists, and that effort is made to remove the names of deceased members from the rolls. Because Bahá'ís must maintain accurate voting lists in order to elect their local spiritual assemblies (the local Bahá'í governing councils), considerable effort is made to maintain accurate membership data on Bahá'ís aged 21 and older. Compounding the problem of bookkeeping is a retention rate of approximately 50% within two years of enrollment, a statistic shared by most churches in the US (Wade Clark Roof).

[edit] Alaska

Alaska is unusual in that it is not an independent nation, recognized by the United Nations, and yet has a National Spiritual Assembly. Its specific statistics are not published, and are often not broken out in non-Bahá'í statistics of the USA in general. One source puts the 1992 combined membership in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico combined at approximately 6000.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hawai'i

The Hawaiian Bahá'í community began when Agnes Alexander became a Bahá'í in Paris in 1900 and returned to the islands in 1901. Similar to Alaska, the Bahá'ís of Hawai'i have an independent National Spiritual Assembly from that of the USA, though it is itself one of the 50 United States. Independent statistics have not been published.

[edit] Canada

The Canadian Bahá'í Community, according to its official website[10] consists of some 30,000 members across approximately 1200 communities throughout the 13 Canadian Provinces and Territories. According to the same source, the Canadian community is quite diverse: "There are French-speaking and English-speaking Bahá'ís, and more than 18% of Canadian Bahá'ís come from First Nations and Inuit backgrounds; another 30% are recent immigrants or refugees."

The Canadian community is one of the earliest western communities, at one point sharing a joint National Spiritual Assembly with the United States, and is a co-recipient of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan. The first North American woman to declare herself a Bahá'í was Mrs. Kate C. Ives, of Canadian ancestry, though not living in Canada at the time. Moojan Momen, in reviewing "The Origins of the Bahá'í Community of Canada, 1898-1948" notes that "the Magee family... are credited with bringing the Bahá'í Faith to Canada. Edith Magee became a Bahá'í in 1898 in Chicago and returned to her home in London, Ontario, where four other female members of her family became Bahá'ís. This predominance of women converts became a feature of the Canadian Bahá'í community..."[11]

Statistics Canada reports 14,730 Bahá'ís from 1991 census data and 18,020 in those of 2001.[12]

[edit] South America

The Bahá'í Faith was introduced into South America in 1919 when Martha Root made an extended trip to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. She introduced the Bahá'í Faith to Esperantists and Theosophical groups and visited local newspapers to ask them to publish articles about the Bahá'í Faith. The first Bahá'í permanently resident in South America was Leonora Holstaple Armstrong, who arrived in Brazil in 1921. The first Seven Year Plan (1937-44), an international plan organized by the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, Shoghi Effendi, gave the American Bahá'ís the goal of establishing the Bahá'í Faith in every country in Latin America (that is, settling at least one Bahá'í or converting at least one native). In 1950, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South America was first elected, and then in 1957 this Assembly was split into two - basically northern/eastern South America with the Republics of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, in Lima, Peru and one of the western/southern South America with the Republics of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia in Buenos Aires, Argentina.^[4] By 1963, most countries in South America had their own National Spiritual Assembly.

[edit] Chile

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Chile

The Bahá'í Faith was first mentioned the Chile in Bahá'í sources as early as 1916, with Bahá'ís visiting as early as 1919 but the community wasn't founded in Chile until 1940 with the beginning of the arrival of coordinated pioneers from the United States finding national Chilean converts and achieved an independent national community in 1963. In 2002 this community was picked for the establishment of the first Bahá'í Temple of South America which the community is still prosecuting.^[5]

The permanent Chilean Bahá'í community dates from the arrival of Marcia Stewart Atwater, born in 1904 in Pasadena, California, who arrived in Chile on December 7, 1940.^[6] The first Chilean to accept the Bahá'í Faith was 12 year old Paul Bravo, which was followed by his family becoming Bahá'ís. Then in 1943, Chile's first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly was elected. Following the election of the Regional Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly of South America in 1950, Chile established it's independent Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly in 1961.

[edit] Bolivia

In Bolivia the religion was introduced to rural Quechua and Aymara Indians starting in 1956. Large numbers of rural people became Bahá'ís. The Bolivian Bahá'ís launched a radio station around 1980 that broadcasts educational programs and Bahá'í information in native languages, as well as traditional music. The World Christian Encyclopedia, drawing on the Bolivian government census, reports 269,246 Bahá'ís in 2000. Official Bahá'í membership figures are much lower, reflecting the impact the radio station has had on the religious identity of many rural people who have never encountered local Bahá'í communities.^[7]

[edit] Asia

The Bahá'í Faith originated in Asia, in Iran (Persia), and spread from there to the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia, India, and Burma during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. Since the middle of the 20th Century, growth has particularly occurred in other Asian countries, because the Bahá'í Faith's activities in many Muslim countries has been severely suppressed by authorities. Exceptions have been Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where the Bahá'í Faith is legal and largely unrestricted.

[edit] Afghanistan

The Bahá'í Faith was introduced in Afghanistan around 1919 and has since had a presence in the country. The First Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1969 in Kabul and the first National Spiritual Assembly in 1972.^[8]

The World Christian Encyclopedia records about 19,500 Afghan Bahá'ís in 1990 and 23,075 in 2000.^[9] A 2007 report from the US State Department indicated that there are around 400 Bahá'ís in Afghanistan, mostly concentrated in Kabul.^[10]

In May 2007 a directorate under the Supreme Court issued a ruling on the status of the Bahá'í Faith, declaring it to be distinct from Islam and a form of blasphemy. The ruling also declared all Muslims who convert to the religion to be apostates and all followers of the Bahá'í Faith to be infidels.^[10] On April 9, 2007, police arrested an Afghan Bahá'í citizen after his religious beliefs were exposed to authorities by his wife. After inquiries from the international community, authorities released the man on May 11, 2007, and he fled the country.^[10]

[edit] India

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in India

The largest Bahá'í community in the world is said to be in India, with an official Bahá'í population of 2.2 million,[13] and roots that go back to the first days of the religion in 1844. A researcher, William Garlington, characterized the 1960s until present as a time of "Mass Teaching".^[11] He suggests that the mentality of the believers in India changed during the later years of Shoghi Effendi's ministry, when they were instructed to accept converts who were illiterate and uneducated. The change brought teaching efforts into the rural areas of India, where the teachings of the unity of humanity attracted many of the lower caste.

The growth of the Bahá'í Faith in India has been greatly assisted by the recognition of Krishna as a Messenger or Manifestation of God, alongside Jesus, Muhammad, and others. Bahá'ís have thus been able to reach out to Hindus, as well as to some extent Muslims, Adivasis (or tribal people), and others.

[edit] Iran

Iran has what is perhaps the second- or third-largest Bahá'í population. Estimates for the early twenty-first century vary between 150,000 and 500,000. During the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent few years, a significant number of Bahá'ís fled the country during intensive persecution. Estimates before and after the revolution vary greatly.

• Eliz Sanasarian writes in Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 53) that "Estimating the number of Bahá'ís in Iran has always been difficult due to their persecution and strict adherence to secrecy. The reported number of Bahá'ís in Iran has ranged anywhere from the outrageously high figure of 500,000 to the low number of 150,000. The number 300,000 has been mentioned most frequently, especially for the mid- to late- 1970's, but it is not reliable. Roger Cooper gives an estimate of between 150,000 and 300,000."
• The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2004) states that "In Iran, by 1978, the Bahá'í community numbered around 300,000."
• The Columbia Encyclopedia (5th edition, 1993) reports that "Prior to the Iranian Revolution there were about 1 million Iranian Bahá'ís."
• The Encyclopedia of Islam (new edition, 1960) reports that "In Persia, where different estimates of their number vary from more than a million down to about 500,000. [in 1958]"

At times the authorities in Iran have claimed that there are no Bahá'ís in their country, and that the persecutions were made up by the CIA. The first claim apparently represents a legal rather than anthropological determination, as Bahá'ís are regarded as Muslims under Iranian law. For the latter, see Persecution of Bahá'ís.

[edit] Malaysia

A large concentration of Bahá'ís is also found in Malaysia, made up of Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans, Aslis and other indigenous groups. The Bahá'í community of Malaysia claims that "about 1%" of the population are Bahá'ís.[14] Given the 2006 population of Malaysia, such a claim represents about 268,000 Bahá'ís.

[edit] The Philippines

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in the Philippines

The Bahá'í Faith in the Philippines started in 1921 with the first Bahá'í first visiting the Philippines that year,^[12] and by 1944 a Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly was established.^[13] In the early 1960s, during a period of accelerated growth, the community grew from 200 in 1960 to 1000 by 1962 and 2000 by 1963. In 1964 the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the Philippines was elected and by 1980 there were 64,000 Bahá'ís and 45 local assemblies.^[14] The Bahá'ís have been active in multi/inter-faith developments. No recent numbers are available on the size of the community.

[edit] Turkmenistan

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan

The Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia.^[15] By 1887 a community of Bahá'í refugees from religious violence in Persia had made a religious center in Ashgabat.^[15] Shortly afterwards — by 1894 — Russia made Turkmenistan part of the Russian Empire.^[16] While the Bahá'í Faith spread across the Russian Empire^[17][16] and attracted the attention of scholars and artists,^[18] the Bahá'í community in Ashgabat built the first Bahá'í House of Worship, elected one of the first Bahá'í local administrative institutions and was a center of scholarship. However during the Soviet period religious persecution made the Bahá'í community almost disappear - however Bahá'ís who moved into the regions in the 1950s did identify individuals still adhering to the religion. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Bahá'í communities and their administrative bodies started to develop across the nations of the former Soviet Union;^[19] In 1994 Turkmenistan elected it's own National Spiritual Assembly^[20] however laws passed in 1995 in Turkmenistan required 500 adult religious adherents in each locality for registration and no Bahá'í community in Turkmenistan could meet this requirement.^[21] As of 2007 the religion had still failed to reach the minimum number of adherents to register^[22] and individuals have had their homes raided for Bahá'í literature.^[23]

[edit] United Arab Emirates

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in the United Arab Emirates

The Bahá'í Faith in the United Arab Emirates begins before the specific country gained independence in 1971. The first Bahá'ís arrived in Dubai by 1950,^[24] and by 1957 there were four Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies in the region of the UAE and a regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Arabian Peninsula.^[24] Recent estimates count some 75,000 Bahá'ís or 1.6% of the national population - second only to Iran in number of Bahá'ís in the nations of the Middle East.^[25]

[edit] Vietnam

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Vietnam

On March 21, 2007, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, about 280 people attended a reception where the government Committee for Religious Affairs presented a certificate giving recognition to Bahá'í activities.[15] Vietnamese government authorities at the time stated that Vietnam had 7,000 Bahá'ís, a number that may reflect thirty years of government restrictions.^[26] There is an estimate of 300,000 Bahá'ís in Vietnam [16] is based on World Christian Encyclopedia, by David Barrett, 2000.[17] In March of 2008, with permission of the government, the Bahá'í Community of Vietnam held their National Convention and elected their first National Spiritual Assembly since 1975.[18]

[edit] Africa

African Bahá'í Community statistics are also hard to come by. However, Africans have a long history with the Bahá'í Faith; several of the earliest followers of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were reportedly African. From 1924 to 1960 the religion was declared one of the legally sanctioned faiths in Egypt, but has since then been subject to restrictions and outright persecution by authorities and others.

[edit] Cameroon

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Cameroon

The Bahá'í Faith in Cameroon was established when the country was separated into two colonies - British and French Cameroon. The first Bahá'í in Cameroon was Enoch Olinga, who had left his homeland of Uganda to bring the religion to British Cameroon in 1953. Meherangiz Munsiff, a young Indian woman who had moved from Britain, arrived in French Cameroon April 1954 - both Olinga and Munsiff were honoured with the title Knight of Bahá'u'lláh.^[27] Currently there are 40,000 adherents of the religion in the country.^[28]

[edit] Niger

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Niger

The Bahá'í Faith in Niger began during a period of wide scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa near the end of its colonial period.^[29] The first Bahá'ís arrive in Niger in 1966^[30] and the growth of the religion reached a point of electing its National Spiritual Assembly in 1975.^[31] Following a period of oppression, making the institutions of the religion illegal in the late 1970s and 80's, the National Assembly was re-elected starting in 1992. The Bahá'í community in Niger has grown mostly in the south-west of the country where they number in the low thousands.

[edit] Nigeria

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Nigeria

After an isolated presence in the late 1920s,^[32] the Bahá'í Faith in Nigeria begins with pioneering Bahá'ís coming to Sub-Saharan West Africa in the 1950s especially following the efforts of Enoch Olinga who directly and indirectly affected the growth of the religion in Nigeria.^[27] Following growth across West Africa a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1956.^[33] As the community multiplied across cities and became diverse in its engagements it elected it's own National Spiritual Assembly by 1979^[34] and had 1000 Bahá'ís in 2001.^[35]

[edit] South Africa

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in South Africa

The Bahá'í Faith in South Africa began with the holding of Bahá'í meetings in the country in 1911.^[36] A small population of Bahá'ís remained until 1950 when large numbers of international Bahá'í pioneers settled in South Africa. In 1956, after members of various tribes in South Africa became Bahá'ís, a regional Bahá'í Assembly which included South Africa was elected. Later each of the constituent countries successively formed their own independent Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly. Then in 1995, after a prolonged period of growth and oppression during Apartheid and the homelands reuniting with South Africa, the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa was formed. Following the end of Apartheid the South African Bahá'í community continued to grow; currently there are around of 201,000 Bahá'is in South Africa.^[37]

[edit] Europe

[edit] United Kingdom

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in the United Kingdom

The Bahá'í Faith in the United Kingdom started with the earliest mentions of the predecessor of the Bahá'í Faith, the Báb, in British newspapers. Some of the first British people who became members of the Bahá'í Faith include George Townshend and John Esslemont. Through the 1930s, the number of Bahá'í in the United Kingdom grew, leading to a pioneer movement beginning after the Second World War with sixty percent of the British Bahá'í community eventually relocating. In 2004 there were about 5000 Bahá'ís in the UK.^[38]

[edit] Denmark

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Denmark

The Bahá'í Faith in Denmark began in 1925 but it was more than 20 years before the Bahá'í community in Denmark began to grow after the arrival of American Bahá'í pioneers in 1946. Following that period of growth, the community established its Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly in 1962. With Iranian Bahá'í refugees and convert Danes the modern community was about 300 Bahá'ís as of 2002.^[39]

[edit] Moldova

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Moldova

The Bahá'í Faith in Moldova began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Moldova, as part of the Russian Empire, would have had indirect contact with the Bahá'í Faith as far back as 1847.^[16][17] In 1974 the first Bahá'í arrived in Moldova.^[40] and following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, communities of Bahá'ís, and respective National Spiritual Assemblies, developed across the nations of the former Soviet Union.^[19] In 1996 Moldova elected it's own National Spiritual Assembly.^[20] There were about 400 Bahá'ís in Moldova in 2004.^[41]

[edit] Norway

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Norway

The Bahá'í Faith in Norway began with contact between traveling Scandinavians with early Persian believers of the Bahá'í Faith in the mid-to-late 1800s.^[42] Bahá'ís first visited Scandinavia in the 1920s following `Abdu'l-Bahá's, then head of the religion, request outlining Norway among the countries Bahá'ís should pioneer to^[43] and the first Bahá'í to settle in Norway was Johanna Schubartt.^[44] Following a period of more Bahá'í pioneers coming to the country, Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies spread across Norway while the national community eventually formed a Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly in 1962.^[24] There are currently around 1000 Bahá'ís in the country.^[45]

[edit] Ukraine

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine

The Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Ukraine, as part of Russia, would have had indirect contact with the Bahá'í Faith as far back as 1847.^[16] Following the Ukrainian diasporas, succeeding generations of ethnic Ukrainians became Bahá'ís and some have interacted with Ukraine previous to development of the religion in the country. There are currently around 1000 Bahá'ís in Ukraine in 13 communities.^[17][46]

[edit] See also

• List of Bahá'í Faith national communities
• Statistics on National Spiritual Assemblies

[edit] External links

• Bahá'í World Statistics
• A comprehensive website about religious adherents of numerous faiths
• Specific compiled stats on percentages and sizes of Bahá'í communities
• Issues Pertaining to Growth, Retention and Consolidation in the United States

[edit] References