The approach

The Patmos Survey analyses the missiological contexts of 150 countries, explores the religious attitudes and beliefs of 90,000 people in 85 countries, provides world class data, and establishes a new understanding of how people relate to the Bible.

The Patmos Survey took a two-phased approach to understanding how people relate to the Bible:

Identify a global typology that establishes how countries may be grouped, according to similar contexts for mission, into country clusters or ‘Mission Contexts’.
Within each identified Mission Context, survey a representative sample of the adult population across a range of countries to establish attitudes, beliefs and behaviours with regard to the Bible (and other markers), leading to the identification of distinct audience groups in the population that can be used as key audiences for understanding the religious landscape, directing mission strategy and helping people explore the Bible for themselves.

Identifying a global typology

To develop the global typology, British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) commissioned Gallup, experts in global research, as a key partner. Gallup undertook interviews with stakeholders from BFBS, United Bible Societies and international experts in World Christianity. Through these interviews country-level factors affecting Bible Engagement were identified, along with possible global data sources (on religion, culture, society, language, political freedoms, economics, and demographics) that could be analysed to generate the global typology.

The team identified 21 indicators formed from global data sets with available data from at least 150 countries. Using the 21 indicators a version of cluster analysis was used to identify patterns in the data that grouped countries according to their shared context for mission.

The final solution resulted in seven distinct mission contexts. We call these ‘Clusters’.

Survey Design

BFBS worked closely with Gallup researchers to finalise survey questions related to the use and perceptions of the Bible for implementation in 85 countries and territories. The design had to take into consideration that questionnaires were fielded across computer-assisted telephone (CATI), in-person (CAPI) and web interviews (CAWI). In total nine questionnaires were designed to account for regional contexts and cultural sensitivities.

Survey Fieldwork

In 2023 Gallup conducted fieldwork across 85 countries and territories. There were at least 1,000 respondents in each country and each sample was nationally representative of the adult population. In 62 countries interviews were conducted via CAPI and CATI of those aged 15 and older. In 23 countries, data was collected via CAWI of those aged 18 and older.

This map displays all the 85 fieldwork countries. The total sample size across all countries was 91,000 people.

Methodology

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