Chuuk State Census Report - pacificweb.org

Chapter 7. Religion, Ethnicity, and Language2000 FSM Census of Chuuk StateLimitations and Comparability. There are no obvious limitations of the ethnicity and language data collected in the1994 and 2000 FSM Censuses. The definition for the “protestant” religion slightly differed among the census years.In 1973 Mormon, SDA, Jehovah Witness and Baptist were included with “Protestant”. In 1994 and 2000 thesereligious groups were considered separately. Additionally, in 2000 “Protestant” includes only the “Congregational”denomination.The TTPI Census in 1973 and the 2000 FSM Census included a question on religion and the data are compared in thischapter. The 1980 TTPI, 1989 Chuuk, 1994 and 2000 FSM Censuses included an open-ended question on ethnicorigin or race. The 2000 Census, however, allowed respondents to report up to two ethnic groups, making it lesscomparable to previous censuses.Analysis of Data on Religion, Ethnicity and LanguageReligionTable 7.1 presents religion by sex in Chuuk. As shown, Roman Catholic continued to be the major religion in Chuukfrom 1973 to 2000, which was followed closely by Protestant. The figures indicate a fairly equal proportion of maleand female in the two religions, however the male population was slightly higher in the Catholic Church, but wasreversed in the Protestant Church for both 1994 and 2000 Censuses.In Chuuk, the other religions reported during the 1994 and 2000 Censuses changed due to an increase from thesereligious groups: Baptist (about half a percent), Seventh Day Adventist (less than half percent), and Mormon (about 1percent), and Other religions (about 3). The gender distribution of these other religions was similar to the Catholic andProtestant - equal proportions of male and female, however the percentage was higher in the latter censuses than in1973. Unlike the previous categories, the ‘Refused/no religion’ category has been declining in its total percentage,accounting for less than half a percent, since 1973. Like the previous categories, male outnumbered female since 1973.As can be further noted from Table 7.1, the proportion of Roman Catholic increased from about 50 percent in 1973 toover 53 percent in the year 2000, the Protestant/Congregational decreased from about 50 percent in 1973 to about 43percent in 2000 (slightly 1 percent increase from 1994). This was in part due to the change in the definition of the“Protestant” category. The Protestant category in 1973 included Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’sWitnesses and Baptist, while in 2000 these groups were considered as separate. The sex distribution is about equal inthe religious categories.Table 7.1: Religion by Sex, Chuuk State: 1973 to 2000Religion 1973 1994 2000Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male FemaleTotal 31,609 16,153 15,456 53,319 27,299 26,020 53,595 27,158 26,437Percent 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0Roman Catholic 49.7 49.3 50.153.2 53.4 53.0 53.0 53.2 52.9Protestant 1 49.2 49.4 49.042.1 41.8 42.5 43.1 42.8 43.3Other religion 0.2 0.2 0.24.5 4.5 4.53.9 4.0 3.8Refused/no religion 0.9 1.1 0.7 0.2 0.3- - 0.1 -Source: 1973 (TTPI) Census; 1994 FSM Census; Table P22; 2000 FSM Table P2-10.Note: 1 2000 data include only the “congregational” denominationTable 7.2 presents the proportion of the religious categories by municipality. As shown by the 1994 and 2000 data,Roman Catholic were the majority for almost all of the municipalities in the Southern Namoneas, Pattiw andNamonuito regions, while Protestant were the majority in the Mortlocks (except for Moch, Lukunoch, Satowal, Ettaland Kuttu), and Halls regions. The percentage shares of Roman Catholic and Protestant were about equal in NorthernNamoneas and in the Faichuk regions.58 Chuuk Branch Statistics Office, Division of Statistics, FSM Department of Economic Affairs