At this newspaper, we are commonly asked for data and information on the breakdown of people by religious faiths in our communities. Alas, no one truly develops such data, and much of it is a wild guess.Sure, it would be great to be able to whip out the numbers, that, for example, Mesa may be 25 percent Roman Catholic, 12 percent some form of Baptist, 9 percent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and 3 percent United Methodists, with some percent available for every faith, from the Assembly of God to Zorastrians. But the U.S. Census Bureau doesnt ask, nor does the Chamber of Commerce or the meter reader. Denominations logically have the best chance to amass numbers, depending on how well they are organized or want to intentionally know. Tightly structured religions those that define who is and isnt a member and require steps that keep them registered or meeting some kinds of requirements theoretically should have good data. The Roman Catholic Church of Phoenix, which registers folks, says there are about half-million Catholics in this diocese, but it acknowledges there are tens of thousands who call themselves Catholics and attend Masses but choose not to register. Often surveys of the general population have found people declaring themselves Lutherans or Episcopalians or Presbyterians but the numbers dont jibe with actual parish counts. Calling oneself something and being on the rolls are two things. There may be 25 million Dallas Cowboys fans in this country, but how do we know?The lead story of this week Jewish News of Greater Phoenix is titled How fast are we growing: Community appears to be outpacing state. Much of the article amounts to head-scratching. Every sign shows that the Valleys Jewish population is booming, even outpacing the states rate, what with Arizonas new status as the fastest-growing state in the nation. Anecdotal signs of Jewish community growth are everywhere: more Judaica stores, more congregations, more birth announcements in Jewish News, writes Salvatore Caputo. Yet as far as demographics goes, no one knows for sure.He fell back on a much used 2002 population study done by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix. Now 5-years-old, that survey determined about 83,000 Jews living in 44,000 Jewish households. Taking interfaith marriages into account, it surmised those same households actually had 107,000. Going back to 1984, the Federation had made its last study, the Jewish population growth was 138 percent, compared to 78 percent growth in the general populace. There appears to be no let-up as northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and much of the East Valley have seen continued growth of synagogues and Jewish facilities. The 2002 edition of the American Jewish Year Book found Phoenix-Mesa the 17th largest Jewish center in the country, with 1.8 percent of the share of U.S. Jews. But some have said it may be now in the top 10. Obviously, Jews like any other faith group, want to know whether population change will necessitate responding with developing more for the adherents more Jewish community centers, religious schools, childcare centers or synagogues.Within the Jewish community, we certainly do see a whole lot of newcomers coming in, said Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein, vice president for Jewish affairs at Jewish Family and Childrens Services, according to the Jewish News. As much as Jews would like to know what the count is, money prevents it. A good, quality demographic study or population study these days for a metropolitan area of this size would cost about $100,000 to $150,000 depending on how large a sample you want or how thorough you want the questions to be, said Fred Zeidman, director of planning and allocations for the Federation, in the news story.All the Valleys faiths and faith communities should start a fund and enlist a top research company for a definitive, massive religious census that would include where believers are distributed and in what numbers. Questions should be sophisticated enough to determine who are adherents and active and who are nominal followers of faiths. It should even distinguish between Reform Jews or Conservative Jews; Missouri Lutherans and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and so forth. I suspect, the study would find a massive no preference population and those with no response. In the end, also, it should be able to say whether people are moving toward organized faith or away from it. But will such a study be done? Dont count on it.

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