Comparison of intra-group relations and the responses to the religious questions, 1976, 1985 and 2003 surveys

Table 5

Less people in the 2003 survey in percentage terms affirm all five of the religious practice questions, but in numerical terms more affirm them. The numbers of men and women who reject the five religious practices questions in  the 1976, 1985 and 2003 surveys are very small and they are only included in the category ‘Gender’ to demonstrate the differences from the affirmation of all five of the religious practices questions in the 1976, 1985 and 2003 surveys. In percentage terms there is little difference between the people who rejected all the religious practices questions in the 1976, 3%, 1985, 4%, and the 2003, 2%, surveys but the raw numbers are so small from all three surveys, the 1976 survey, (11), the 1985 survey, (22) and the 2003 survey, (15). However, the numbers for the people affirming the questions about religious practices are large enough to be considered. More women than men affirmed the religious practices questions in the 1976 and 2003 surveys and the men and women were just about equal, (42) to (41), in the 1985 survey. 

Table 6

None of the respondents from the 1976 and the 1985 surveys affirmed or rejected all eight religious beliefs questions listed in table 6, ‘Religious beliefs questions’.

However, seven of the respondents from the 2003 survey affirmed all of the eight religious beliefs questions and five of the respondents rejected all of them. In the 1976 survey 250 people, 80% of the total group of respondents affirmed at least one of the eight religious beliefs questions and 279 people, 89% of the total group rejected at least one of the eight of them whereas in the 1985 survey 455 people, 91% of the total group of respondents affirmed at least one of the eight religious beliefs questions and 454 people, 91% rejected at least one of them.  In 2003 survey, 577 people, 96% of the total group of respondents, affirmed at least one of the eight religious beliefs questions and 433 people, 72% of the total group of respondents, rejected at least one of them. There has been an increase from the 1976 survey to the 2003 survey in percentage terms of respondents who affirm at least one religious belief question and a decline in percentage terms in respondents who reject at least one. In the 2003 survey women affirmed the religious beliefs questions at a slightly higher rate, 50%, (9) women, than the men, 48% and similarly the men rejected, 51%, (13) men, at a slightly higher rate than the women, 48%.  The differences are so small that the affirmation and rejection rate is roughly equal for both women and men. Similarly in the 1985 the men and the women were roughly equal in their affirmation or rejection of one of the eight religious beliefs questions. In the 1976 survey more men, in percentage terms, both affirmed and rejected at least one of the eight religious beliefs questions than did the women: 54%, (135), and 55%, (153) men affirmed and rejected at least one of the eight religious beliefs questions whereas 46%, (114), and 45%, (125) women affirmed and rejected at least one of them in the 1976 survey. In all other respects the differences between the demographic characteristics of the respondents, in the 1976, 1985 and 2003 surveys that affirm or reject at least one of the eight religious beliefs is minimal. The details are recorded in table 7 below.

Table 7

There were no respondents in the 1976 survey who rejected all four questions listed in table 8, ‘Zoroastrian Symbolic Boundaries questions’, about the symbolic boundaries of Zoroastrianism, whereas in the 1985 and 2003 surveys 7%, (43), and 5%, (30), of the respondents rejected all the symbolic boundaries’ questions. Fifty five people, 17%, in the 1976 survey, affirmed all four symbolic boundaries questions, 78 people, 16%, did so in the 1985 survey and 288 people, 38% did so in survey of 2003. There was a low ‘no response’ rate for the questions relating to the symbolic boundaries in the 1976 survey. Thus, the fact that none of the respondents rejected all the questions relating to the symbolic boundaries is not associated with a low response rate. More men than women affirm all four questions relating to the symbolic boundaries. In the case of the respondents who reject all four questions relating to the symbolic boundaries, there is a virtually no percentage difference between the men and the women in the 1985 and 2003 surveys.

Table 8

 In terms of age the 1976 and 2003 surveys have a similar age distribution with few people over 60 years affirming the four questions relating to the symbolic boundaries but in the 2003 survey there is an increase of over 14% of respondents aged over 60 years affirming all four questions.  There is a much higher percentage of single people in the 1985 survey both affirming and rejecting the four questions than in the 1976 and 2003 surveys. The latter two surveys, 1976 and 2003, have similar marital status profile. Of the respondents from the 1985 and 2003 surveys who reject all four questions none are married to non-Zoroastrians whereas for the respondents who affirm all four questions, a high percentage are married to non-Zoroastrians, especially for the surveys of 1985 and 2003. A higher percentage of people had been educated in Europe in the ‘affirming’ groups compared with the ‘rejecting’ groups, and educational levels were higher in the ‘affirming’ groups compared with the ‘rejecting’ groups. In the 1985 survey a higher percentage of people with a scientific education affirmed all four questions compared with people who rejected them. In both the 1985 survey and the 2003 survey the people who had had ‘other’ types of education, which includes accountants and lawyers, had the highest percentage rejection of the four questions. The survey results are tabulated below, in table 9.

Table 9