Updates

Xiongan, Chiang Rai, Wollongong, and Myrtle Beach are some of the 195 cities in 49 countries are included for the first time in the 2018 edition of the United Nations listing of cities with over 300,000 people.

They represent a combination of smaller cities growing to over 300,000 for the first time, or the boundaries of cities changing (some merging and some splitting).

As cities grow to over 1 million in population WRD will add a percentage for the largest religion and a listing of other religions in the city numbering over 1 percent.

City definitions and population source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision.

The World Religion Database is content-rich and while this quarter has also seen significant improvements to the data, it is the website redesign that will be most striking to returning users.

Technically the data still reside in SQL Server tables, but the software getting the data from the database to the user has been completely rewritten over these past several years by Breuer & Co. and its implementation now enables a host of new user features.

Adding or removing fields, and changing criteria to get the specific data required is easier with enhancements to the query-design feature, and user changes can now be saved to a common organizational workspace.

So start with example queries and the country index on the main page, or click the rocket icon Launchpad to see all the main topics at a glance, or enter a search term and go from there.

As always, help is available from researchers at info@religiousdemography.org (or call +1 978-646-4335) and your feedback is most welcome.