Abstract

This study provides estimates of religious commitment for a wide variety of subpopulations of youth aged 15 to 24, young adults, aged 25 to 39, the middle aged, 40 to 59 years old, seniors, aged 60 and older, parents, household income groups, educational attainment groups, Canada's five regions, metro and non-metro areas, and children in Canada's provinces and northern territories. The main measures of commitment for adults are the frequency of worship, religiosity, potential attendance ("religious" people not worshipping at least monthly), and volunteering in religious organizations. The estimates for adults are based on the average commitments for the years 1997 and 2000, obtained from the micro data of Statistics Canada's National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, for those two years. In order to obtain these estimates, the responses from two surveys were pooled - such a procedure enables reliable estimates to be obtained for very detailed sub-populations including faith communities. The estimates for children are based on the results of Statistics Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth for 1994-95, 1996-97 and 1998-99, and include some estimates of the transitions of children into and out of attendance at religious services between the first and last time periods. A review of literature is also included in this study.