Skip to main content

National Survey of Religious Leaders

The first nationally representative survey of religious clergy from across the religious spectrum
  • Client
    Duke University
  • Dates
    2018 - 2020

Challenge

There was no accessible source of nationally representative data about religious leaders across the religious spectrum.

 

Given the decentralized nature of religious practice in the United States, there is no single, exhaustive sampling frame of religious congregations or religious leaders. As a result, creating a nationally representative sample of religious leaders is challenging for many researchers.

 

Providing access to this type of scientifically rigorous data is important to a wide audience of researchers, journalists, policymakers, and students so that our collective knowledge about this area of American society can be deepened while minimizing bias in the data collected.

Solution

We launched data collection for the National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL).

 

NORC conducts the General Social Survey (GSS), which collects the most rigorous, widely used data in the United States on the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of the American public using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. The National Congregations Study, also conducted by NORC for Dr. Mark Chaves at Duke University, uses hyper-network sampling to gather a nationally representative sample of congregations in the U.S. by studying congregations attended by GSS respondents.

 

By further conducting a study on attitudes and practices among the ministerial staff of these congregations, researchers can attain an unbiased picture of religious clergy across the religious spectrum in the U.S.

 

NORC’s deep experience conducting attitudinal studies and NORC’s infrastructure around the GSS and hyper-network studies allows this 1st of its kind data to be collected and made available to researchers of all disciplines and experience levels so they may gain scientifically based insights on religious life in the U.S.

Result

We generated the opportunity for groundbreaking insight into religious leaders’ characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors.

 

The NSRL dataset became publicly available on the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in August 2023. By June 2024, eleven papers using study results were published in publications like Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, JAMA Psychiatry, Friends Journal, Politics and Religion, Review of Religious Research, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Sociological Focus, with a publication forthcoming in Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling. The NSRL data continues to be widely accessible and used by researchers and students.

 

Project Leads

Resources

“With religion being such an influential and rich element of American society, there is both cultural and academic importance to gaining unbiased knowledge about the ministerial leaders who guide the American population in their religious and spiritual practices.”

Senior Research Director II

“With religion being such an influential and rich element of American society, there is both cultural and academic importance to gaining unbiased knowledge about the ministerial leaders who guide the American population in their religious and spiritual practices.”

Explore NORC Society & Culture Projects

Facilitating Criminal Records Analysis

NORC helps researchers study recidivism at a lower cost with more accuracy and greater efficiency

Client:

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Survey of Fishing, Hunting & Wildlife-Associated Recreation

Streamlining, economizing, and increasing the reach of a venerable national survey

Client:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies