God and Society in North America, 1996

DOI

10.17605/OSF.IO/SQYD4

Citation

Green, J., Guth, J., Kellstedt, L., & Smidt, C. (2020, May 5). God and Society in North America, 1996.

Summary

A 1996 survey of religion, politics, and social involvement in Canada and the United States.

The ARDA has added six additional variables to the original data set to enhance the users' experience on our site.

Data File

Cases: 6023
Variables: 217
Weight Variable: WT1

Because of the unusually large sample sizes per country (n=3000), it was decided to do a more exacting weighting scheme than is usual for survey research.

Data Collection

Between September 19 and October 10, 1996

Funded By

This project was made possible by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Collection Procedures

Data collection was conducted by the Angus Reid Group. The firm's seven central location facilities used Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI).

Sampling Procedures

A total of 6,023 telephone interviews were conducted with representative cross sections of Canadian (3,000) and American (3,023) adults. The survey samples were stratified by region disproportionately in order to augment the sub-samples in less populous regions. The actual sample distribution in Canada provided for 700 interviews in each of Ontario and Quebec, and 400 in each of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba-Saskatchewan, and the Atlantic region. In the United States, the sample distribution provided for 400 interviews in each of the five largest Census Regions: East North Central, Middle Atlantic, Pacific, South Atlantic and West South Central. Two hundred fifty interviews were conducted in each of: East South Central, Mountain, New England and West North Central Census Region.

Principal Investigators

Angus Reid Group with Queen's University's George Rawlyk Research Unit on Religion and Society; Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals; Dr. John Green, University of Akron; Dr. Jim Guth, Furman University; Dr. Lyman Kellstedt, Wheaton College; and Dr. Corwin Smidt, Calvin College.

Notes on Weighting

Canada:
Weighting for the Canadian sample uses 1995 Stats Canada population projections for the following criteria:
1) Province
2) Gender
3) Age category (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+)
Provinces were all treated separately except for the four Maritime provinces (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick), which were combined into one region for weighting purposes.

United States:
Weighting for the U.S. sample uses 1995 Census population projections for the following criteria:
1) Census Division region (nine regions)
2) Gender
3) Age category (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+)
After this weighting was completed, additional adjustments were made for racial background (based on four categories - white, black, Hispanic, and other). These adjustments were done on the four large Census division areas instead of the nine census divisions regions due to the small sample sizes in some regions.