A column of current statistics selected especially for Christian communicators
Percentage of the information that will be available in 2010 that we have now: 3
Percentage of “A” students in college who attend religious services weekly: 43
Percentage of “B” students who do: 32
Estimated number of arrests of prolife activists, since 1987: 30,000
Percentage of American women who think they are overweight: 49
Percentage of American women who are truly overweight: 27
Number of aspirin taken by Americans each year: 33,000,000,000
Percentage of the world’s people who lived in cities in 1970: 33
Percentage of the world’s people who live in cities today: 50
Estimated number of commercial messages an American is exposed to each day: 1,500
Odds of a first-year marriage not ending in divorce: 5 in 10
Of a ten-year marriage not ending in divorce: 7 in 10
Of a marriage of 35-39 years not ending in divorce: 98 in 100
Average speed on Los Angeles freeways in 1988: 35 mph
Average projected speed in 2010: 19 mph
If the world had 1,000 people, the number who would live in a shantytown: 600
Percentage of Americans who say that religion is very important in their lives: 57
Who say that religion is fairly important in their lives: 29
All-Time Best-Sellers
People’s fears and dreams are reflected in the five best-selling paperback books of all time:
Baby and Child Care, by Dr. Benjamin Spock
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
1984, by George Orwell
The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty
Publisher’s Weekly
Why Clergy Seek Counseling
According to Dr. Charles Shepson, director of Fairhaven Ministries, a Tennessee center specializing in counseling for ministers, these are the leading reasons why “church workers” seek professional help: Depression (13 percent); marital problems (11 percent); extra-marital affairs (8 percent); problems with authority (8 percent); and burnout (7 percent).
“Forced terminations” and “conflict with parishioners” also made the list, but below these reasons. Perhaps this indicates that ministers need to care for themselves and their marriages even more than they do their congregations’ harmony.
Pentecostals Growing Rapidly
Pentecostals and charismatics, who are growing at the rate of 19 million a year, have become the second largest family in Christendom. According to David Barrett, editor of World Christian Encyclopedia, Christianity’s various clusters have reached the following sizes:
Roman Catholics – 944 million
Pentecostals/charismatics – 352 million
Reformation Protestants – 318 million
Eastern Orthodox – 178 million.
With this growth, 21 percent of Christians – 1 in 5 – consider themselves Pentecostals or charismatics, and all ten of the world’s largest churches are Pentecostal.
– Reported in Pentecostal Evangel, 12/26/59
What We Do on Christmas
The Roper Organization knows when we’ve been sleeping and knows when we’re awake on Christmas Day. Here’s what they discovered Americans do on the holiday:
Open presents (68 percent)
Visit family or friends (61 percent)
Watch a football game (31 percent)
Have a fire in the fireplace (15 percent)
Leave food out for Santa (10 percent)
Stay in bed sick or alone (4 percent)
Go caroling (2 percent).
Still ahead of the football game is attending church, an activity chosen by 39 percent of Americans.
Sources – Expanding knowledge: The Frog in the Kettle by George Barna (Regal, 1990). Grade-A collegians: PRRC Emerging Trends, 9/89. Prolife arrests: Operation Rescue, reported in Harper’s, 1/90. Overweight women: Los Angeles Times Poll; National Center for Health Statistics; cited in U.S. News & World Report, 2/19/90. Aspirin: Reader’s Digest Book of Facts. City dwellers: U.S. Census Bureau, cited in U.S. News & World Report, 2/19/90. Commercial overload: The Frog in the Kettle by George Barna (Regal, 1990). Divorce odds: National Center for Health Statistics, reported in American Demographics, 2/89. L.A. freeway speeds: Newsweek, 7/31/89. Shantytown dwellers: Development Innovations and Networks, Geneva, reported in Chicago Tribune. Importance of religion: PRRC Emerging Trends, 9/89.
Leadership Fall 1990 p. 129
Copyright © 1990 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
