The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)

10/22/2026

The ARDA Data Archive is a collection of surveys, polls, and other data submitted by researchers and made available online for free.

You can browse the archive by category or search by keyword. Once you select a file, you can preview the results, read about how the data were collected, review the survey questions asked, save selected survey questions to your own file, and download the data file.

Explore the Data Archive today at: https://www.thearda.com/data-archive/browse-categories

Interactive Categorized Hierarchy of Over 1000 Data Collections in Data Archive

10/21/2026

Catholic Schools and Weekly Mass Aren’t Solving the Retention Crisis

American Catholicism seems to be hemorrhaging members at an alarming rate. Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study found that just 58% of Catholics were being retained into adulthood.

But how did we get here? The General Social Survey makes it pretty simple to trace the trajectory of Catholic retention over time. In this piece, Ryan Burge provides a data visualization comparing four possible outcomes: not retained, retained but only rarely attending church, retained but only attending occasionally, and retained and attending weekly or more.

Read the full column at https://www.thearda.com/categories/ahead-of-the-trend/catholic-schools-and-weekly-mass-arent-solving-the-retention-crisis.

Ahead of the Trend Article - Title: Catholic Schools and Weekly Mass Aren’t Solving the Retention Crisis ; Date: 2026-10-15

10/19/2026

Learn more about religion and statistical terms in the ARDA's dictionary. Today's featured entry highlights one of the terms defined in Confucianism. "Li" refers to individual performances needed for personal development.

Find more key definitions at https://www.thearda.com/research/religion-dictionary.

10/16/2026

Organized by Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, the Million Man March took place in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995. It was the largest gathering of African Americans in U.S. history, with at least 850,000 marchers, according to the National Park Service.

Taking place after the widely publicized beating of Rodney King, the subsequent riots in Los Angeles, and in the midst of conservative backlash toward civil rights efforts, the Million Man March desired to paint a more positive portrayal of Black males in America. Influenced by previous marches on Washington, the event was staged on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Farrakhan himself invoked both the Koran and the Bible multiple times during his keynote address, reflecting the march’s religious nature.

Although criticized for its gender exclusivity and its controversial leader, the march highlighted the racial unrest of the 1990s.

Learn more about this event and other prominent moments of religious history with the ARDA's Timelines feature: https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/history/timelines.

10/15/2026

"Are evangelicals managing to push back against secularization? The answer is no—not entirely. Evangelicals are declining more slowly than other Christians, not staying flat while everyone else falls. They’re also just secularizing more slowly than the Christians around them.

"Why are Christians today less devout than Christians from 20 years ago? The answer is twofold: younger Christians today are less religious than younger Christians from 2007. But we also know that Christians, regardless of tradition, are secularizing as they age as well."

Read more analysis from the latest installment of at https://www.thearda.com/categories/ahead-of-the-trend/are-evangelicals-holding-the-line-against-secularization.

10/13/2026

Lilly Endowment is inviting organizations that support student ministries and chaplaincy programs at colleges and universities to apply for two new grant initiatives aimed to nurture the religious lives of young people.

Through the National Initiative to Strengthen Chaplaincies at Colleges and Universities, four-year colleges and universities in the United States are invited to submit proposals to strengthen the work of chaplaincies or offices of religious life on their own campuses. The initiative is designed to assist schools in assessing the effectiveness of their current ministries with students and implementing efforts to enhance religious life on their campuses.

Through the National Initiative to Strengthen Christian Campus Ministries at Colleges and Universities, national and regional denominational agencies, campus ministry parachurch organizations, and collegiate ministries associations are invited to submit proposals to strengthen local Christian campus ministries. This initiative is designed to help these organizations in developing and implementing efforts to increase the effectiveness and capacities of multiple local Christian campus ministries in their networks to reach and serve college students.

Learn more about these initiatives at https://www.thearda.com/research/national-initiatives-to-strengthen-chaplaincies-and-campus-ministries-at-colleges-and-universities.

10/09/2026

On October 9, 2023, the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), an international Hindu religious and social service organization, opened the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, or temple, on 160 acres in New Jersey.

It is the world’s largest Hindu temple outside India.

Learn more about the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir at https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/history/timelines/entry?etype=1&eid=366.

10/08/2026

"Are Evangelicals Holding the Line Against Secularization?" In the latest installment of Ahead of the Trend, Dr. Ryan Burge seeks to determine whether the assertion is true that evangelicals are remaining steady while other denominations are falling rapidly.

The data shows that evangelicals aren’t immune to secularization; they’re just secularizing more slowly than other Christians around them.

Read the full column at https://www.thearda.com/categories/ahead-of-the-trend/are-evangelicals-holding-the-line-against-secularization.

Ahead of the Trend Article - Title: Are Evangelicals Holding the Line Against Secularization? ; Date: 2026-10-01

10/07/2026

Lilly Endowment has launched the Serving Neighbors Through Congregational Collaborations Initiative to support programs that will help congregations identify pressing human and social needs in their communities, build relationships with community organizations, and design and launch collaborative endeavors to address these needs.

The Endowment is inviting charitable organizations to apply for grants of up to $5 million each and anticipates awarding approximately 60 grants.

More information about this Initiative (including submission guidelines) can be found at: https://lillyendowment.org/serving-neighbors-initiative/.

10/06/2026

Recent datasets are now available for free access on the ARDA, from the longest-running barometer of public opinion in Afghanistan to three waves of Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel.

Explore these and other datasets now on thearda.com.