The Association of Religion Data Archives

What The Association of Religion Data Archives does

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) is a US-based nonprofit academic organization founded in 1997 that operates a free, web-based data archive platform providing religion-related demographic, survey, and census data. The platform aggregates over 1,000 data collections and offers interactive group profiles for more than 1,000 religious groups, a zip-code-level Community Profile Builder for US congregations, historical US religion maps (1770-1930), congregational membership reports with over-time charts, family trees, timelines, beliefs statistics, and downloadable datasets in SPSS, Stata, and ASCII formats. ARDA also hosts specialized research assets including the Religion and State (RAS) Project at Bar Ilan University measuring government religion policy for 183 states from 1990-2014 and the Global Flourishing Study covering 200,000+ participants across 20+ nations.

The platform serves academic researchers and scholars studying religion demographics and sociology, college and secondary educators building curriculum, and church and community leaders seeking local religious landscape data for congregational planning and outreach. All resources are distributed free of charge with no registration required, delivered through a self-serve website, periodic email newsletters, and organic social channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky). There are no disclosed paying customers and no end-user pricing model.

Revenue is generated through grant funding and sponsorship rather than user fees. Primary financial sponsors include Lilly Endowment Inc., John Templeton Foundation, and Templeton Religion Trust, while academic affiliations with Pennsylvania State University, Indiana University Indianapolis, Baylor University, Chapman University, and the University of Sheffield provide operational and research support. ARDA also maintains data partnerships with the US Religion Census and World Religion Database, and an alignment partnership with the Center for Open Science, creating a continuous data-contribution ecosystem that underwrites the free-access mission.

Name

The Association of Religion Data Archives

Legal name

The Association of Religion Data Archives

Website

https://thearda.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

ARDA is a free, nonprofit online archive founded in 1997 that provides religion-related demographic data, survey datasets, interactive maps, and educational tools to academic researchers, educators, and religious leaders worldwide, hosting over 1,000 data collections.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Religion Data Archive

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (519210), Business Associations (813910)

akta.pro primary industry

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF)

Keywords

• Religion data archive
• Religious demographics
• Academic research data
• Congregational membership data
• Sociology of religion

Headquarters

HQ city

University Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding and Sponsorship: ARDA operates as a non-profit organization funded by grants and sponsorships from foundations including Lilly Endowment Inc., John Templeton Foundation, and Templeton Religion Trust, as well as academic partnerships with universities like Penn State, Indiana University Indianapolis, and Baylor University.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) operates a free, web-based data archive and analytics platform that provides interactive reports for over 1,000 religious groups, congregational membership statistics, downloadable survey datasets, interactive US and world religion maps, and educational teaching modules. It serves academic researchers, educators, students, and religious/community leaders by consolidating fragmented religion data sources into one searchable archive with specialized tools for demographic analysis and community profiling.

Product overview

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) is a data archive and analytics platform that democratizes access to religion data. The platform operates as a unified data repository and analytics platform offering multiple integrated modules: US Religion Data (covering over 1,000 religious groups with profiles, maps, census data, and statistics), World Religion Data (providing global religion demographics for hundreds of nations), the Data Archive (with over 1,000 survey collections and church membership data), Research Tools (including syntax repository, religion dictionary, and academic papers), Teaching Tools (learning modules for college and high school), the Community Profile Builder (for generating local religion demographics), the Religion and State (RAS) Project (measuring government religion policy globally), and the Global Flourishing Study. The platform serves researchers, educators, congregations, and community leaders with free access to interactive reports, downloadable datasets, and educational resources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Religion and State Project (RAS): A university-based project at Bar Ilan University that creates measures of government religion policy worldwide, examining the intersection between government and religion. RAS Round 3 covers 183 states for 1990-2014.

Products and services

• US Religion Data Platform Comprehensive platform providing interactive reports for over 1,000 religious groups, religious families, and traditions, including group profiles, community profiles, religion census data, interactive maps (state, county, and historical from 1770-1930), family trees, timelines, beliefs statistics, rankings, and membership reports.
• World Religion Data Platform Global religion data platform providing religion demographics, survey findings, and social and political measures for hundreds of nations, world regions, and world population, including family trees, world maps, and rankings.
• Data Archive Repository of over 1,000 data collections including surveys, church membership data, external resources, measurements, question bank, and machine-readable metadata (MARC files).
• Research Tools Academic research resources including syntax repository for religious classification, religion dictionary with hundreds of definitions, guiding papers, working papers, published papers, and reference links for researchers.
• Teaching Tools Educational resources including college learning modules, Jr/Sr high school modules, an online course, teaching resources, instructional data files, and timelines for classroom use.
• Community Profile Builder Tool that assists church and community leaders in generating free religion demographics reports for their zip codes, with in-depth guides for education, employment, family, age and gender, housing, income, race, and religion topics.
• Religion and State (RAS) Project University-based project at Bar Ilan University measuring government religion policy for 183 states and independent territories from 1990 to 2014, including official religion, religious support, religious restrictions, religious discrimination, societal discrimination, and minority actions data.
• Global Flourishing Study Data and tools from a 5-year, 20+ nation, 200K+ participant survey on aspects of flourishing.
• Congregational Membership Reports Interactive congregational membership reports with maps and over-time charts for states, counties, and metro areas.
• Ahead of the Trend News section providing the latest news in religion research from throughout the world.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Indiana University IndianapoliscoreOthersUniversity partner providing institutional support and collaboration for ARDA operations and research initiatives.
• Pennsylvania State UniversitycoreOthersPrimary academic partner hosting and supporting ARDA. Penn State researchers including Roger Finke contribute to the Religion and State Project.
• Baylor UniversitycoreOthersAcademic affiliate providing research collaboration and institutional support for ARDA initiatives.
• University of SheffieldminorOthersInternational academic partner contributing to ARDA's research network and data collaboration efforts.
• Center for Open SciencecoreTechnology or IntegrationAffiliate organization supporting open science practices in religion research, aligned with ARDA's mission of data accessibility.
• Chapman UniversityminorOthersAcademic affiliate, with researchers like Christopher Bader contributing to ARDA datasets including the Chapman Survey of American Fears.
• Religion and State Project (RAS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor research initiative housed on ARDA platform measuring government religion policy for 183 states from 1990-2014. Led by Jonathan Fox of Bar Ilan University with multiple research associates from partner institutions.
• US Religion CensuscoreOthersPartner organization providing congregational membership data for the US Religion Census, available through ARDA's data archive.
• World Religion DatabasecoreOthersAffiliate providing world religion data that complements ARDA's international religion statistics and national profiles.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research): ICPSR, based at the University of Michigan, is the largest social-science data archive in the world, hosting thousands of datasets including many religion-related surveys. It is a direct peer to ARDA as an academic data archive that preserves and disseminates survey and observational data.
• Pew Research Center: Pew Research Center is the most prominent US-based producer of religion demographics and survey research, publishing reports such as the Religious Landscape Study. It is directly comparable to ARDA because both produce widely cited, free religion data for researchers, educators, and the public — Pew from primary survey work and ARDA from archiving and aggregating.
• IPUMS: IPUMS, based at the University of Minnesota, provides census and survey microdata for the US and global population, including religious affiliation variables. It is a direct peer to ARDA as an academic data archive democratizing structured population data for researchers.
• Harvard Dataverse: Harvard Dataverse is a major open-source repository for research data across the social sciences. It is a direct peer to ARDA in providing a free, citable data-archive platform for academic researchers.
• World Religion Database: World Religion Database (published by Brill) provides national-level religion demographics for nearly every country. It is a direct peer because ARDA explicitly lists it as a complementary data partner, and both serve researchers needing cross-national religion statistics.
• UK Data Service: The UK Data Service is the UK's national data archive for social and economic research, including religion-related survey data. It is a direct peer to ARDA as a publicly funded academic data archive with downloadable datasets for researchers.
• Roper Center for Public Opinion Research: The Roper Center at Cornell is a major archive of US and international public opinion polling data, including religion-related surveys. It is a direct peer to ARDA as an academic archive preserving survey data for secondary research use.
• General Social Survey (GSS): The General Social Survey is one of the most widely used sources of US religion data, including denominational affiliation, attendance, and beliefs. ARDA explicitly hosts and links to GSS data, making it a direct peer in academic religion-data provision.

Others

• Center for Open Science: The Center for Open Science is explicitly named as an ARDA partner and shares ARDA's mission of open, reproducible science. It is a thematic peer as an infrastructure provider for open-research data and reproducibility rather than a direct competitor in religion data.

Broad incumbents

• NORC at the University of Chicago: NORC is a large, established independent research institution that conducts and archives major social surveys including the General Social Survey, which contains substantial religion variables. It is a broad incumbent comparable to ARDA as a long-running academic data producer and archive.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/ReligionData
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-arda

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Association of Religion Data Archives