A comparison of the original surveys of 1976, 1985 and 2003 in tables 2-9
The comparison will begin with an analysis of the demography of the respondents and then move on to the questions relating to the Zoroastrian religion.
More men, 56%, 177, than women, 43%, 133, replied to the 1976 survey and in the 1985 survey, 52 %, 257 men to 48%, 238 women, but by the 2003 survey just more women, 49%, 298, than men, 48%, 293, answered the survey. That is, 14% more men than women answered the survey in 1976 and in 1985, 7% more men than women answered the survey but in 2003 1% more women than men answered the survey.
The age group 40 to 49 years was the largest group of respondents for both the 1976 and 1985 surveys, but by the 2003 survey the largest group was 60 to 69 years followed by 70+ years. In the 1976 survey, the 60+ age group comprised only 15% of the total but by the 2003 survey it was 49%.
In the 2003 survey, 21% of respondents said that they had non-Zoroastrian marital partners with the figures for the 1976 and the 1985 surveys being 13% and 15% respectively. The variety of different religious and ethnic backgrounds of the non-Zoroastrian partners increased from the 1976 to the 2003 surveys. The type of family stayed reasonably consistent over the years 1976 to 2003, with about 16% in nuclear families and 70% in extended families, the remainder being people living in Europe without any family.
The level of education reached changed from 7% with postgraduate qualifications in the 1976 survey to 24% in the 1985 survey through to 39% in the 2003 survey. The type of occupation did not change except that there were more retired respondents in the 2003 survey, 27%, than in the 1976 and 1985 surveys. Fathers’ occupations did not change but there was an increase in mothers working outside the home, from 14% in the 1976 survey, 21% in the 1985 survey to 32% in the 2003 survey, an increase of 18% from 1976 to 2003. If women respondents, as a whole, are analysed regarding working outside the home, it was found that 46% did so in the 1976 survey, 58% in the 1985 survey and 64% in the 2003 survey, again an increase of 18%. Thus, the 2003 sample was more balanced in terms of gender than either of the other two surveys and was more highly educated, but it was also older, with the largest age groups being over 60 years of age.
The demographic analyses point to a group of people who are established in Europe with increasing numbers of respondents born in Europe. Educational qualifications rose across the surveys with more respondents having postgraduate qualifications. However, there was an increase in the age of the respondents and less young people, under the age of thirty, answered the 2003, 20% (44), survey than answered the 1976, 15% (46), or the 1985, 20% (102) survey.
In table 3, ‘Religious questions: the 1976 survey, the 1985 survey, the 2003 survey’, the responses to the religious questions from the three surveys are listed, with religious practices first, followed by religious beliefs and lastly the questions about Zoroastrian symbolic boundaries. There were some changes in the questions between the three surveys, however. In the 1976 and 1985 questionnaires, the question ‘Do you wear Sudre/ Kusti?’ was posed as one question only, but in the 2003 questionnaire it was decided to ask the question separately, as ‘Do you wear Sedreh?’ and ‘Do you wear Pushi/ Kusti?’ Also, in the 1976 questionnaire there was not a question about children less than 18 years of age undergoing their Naujote, but only a question about children under 18 years of age wearing their Sudre/ Kusti, which indicated that these children had undergone their Naujote. Thus, the 1976 question is included to give some idea of the numbers of children under 18 years who had under gone their Naujote in 1976, to compare them with the numbers in 1985 and 2003 whose parents affirmed that they had undergone their Naujote.
The comparison of the responses to the religious beliefs and practices questions between the three surveys shows that there is a slight increase from 61% in the 1976 survey to 66% in the 1985 survey and then down to 64% in the 2003 survey, by the respondents who affirm the question that they pray daily at home. In the other categories of the question ‘Do you pray at home?’ there are slight differences between the three surveys. There is a slight decline by the 2003 survey of people who affirm the question that they always wear the Sedreh/ Sudre and Pushi/ Kusti from 70% and 71% in the 1976 and the 1985 surveys, respectively, to 64% (Sedreh/ Sudre) and 57% (Pushi/ Kusti) in the 2003 survey.
The questions relating to children and Zoroastrianism have a high ‘no response’ rate, except in the 1976 survey when 53% affirmed the question that they did teach their children to pray, but even here there was a ‘no response’ rate of 44%. The majority of the respondents in the 1985 and 2003 surveys did not have children less than 18 years of age. The samples of the 1985 survey and especially of the 2003 survey are of an older group of respondents than in the 1976 survey.
In the 1976 survey 15% affirmed the question that they wanted to be flown to India to a Dokhma and 56% affirmed the question that they would be cremated in the UK. By the 1985 survey those respondents affirming the question that they wanted to go to a Dokhma had increased to 18% and those affirming ‘cremation in the UK’ question had dropped to 39%, but by the 2003 survey the figures for those wanting to go to a Dokhma had dropped to 11% and those affirming the question ‘cremation in the UK’ had increased to 67%.
The ‘no response’ rate for the questions relating to the questions regarding religious beliefs was high for the 1976 and the 1985 surveys, 48% in 1976 and from 43% to 64% in 1985, but by the 2003 survey the ‘no response’ rate is lower, from 15% to 41%. In the 1976 survey, the affirm response to the religious beliefs questions ranges from 1% to 11% and the reject response from 41% to 51%. There is an increase in affirmation to questions concerning ‘the immortality of the soul’ and ‘reincarnation’ from the 1985 survey to the 2003 survey, from 47% and 28% to 49% and 30% respectively. Similarly, affirmation of ‘resurrection of the body’ question increases from 6% in the1985 survey to 18% in the 2003 survey and affirmation of the ‘heaven and hell’ question from 31% in 1985 to 47% in 2003. There is an increase in affirmation to questions concerning prayers for the dead from the 1976 survey through to the 2003 survey, except for the question of ‘prayers for the dead being meaningless’. Here the highest affirm rate is 15% in the 1976 survey and the lowest is in the 1985 survey, 4%, with 8% in the 2003 survey. The questions relating to prayers for the dead show the lowest ‘no response’ rate in the 1976 survey at 14%, rising through 14%-18% in the 1985 survey, to 23% to 57% in the 2003 survey.
The attitudes to the intermarriage question show a similar pattern to that of preferred burial practices questions, with affirmation declining by the 1985 survey to 67%, from 74% affirmation in the 1976 survey. However, by the 2003 survey, there was 80% affirmation of inter-marriage question. There were more people who had married non-Zoroastrians replying to the 2003 survey than to the other two surveys, 129 people of whom 54 were women.
In the 1985 survey there was, just, a higher ‘no response’ rate for the questions relating to children of intermarriages undergoing Naujote and non-Zoroastrians access to the prayer room. Also, in the 1985 survey, respondents had lower percentage affirmation of the questions, apart from the one relating to intermarriage, than the respondents in the 1976 survey. By the 2003 survey, the percentage affirmation of the questions was at its highest for all four questions and the rejection percentages at their lowest.
The affirm response rate to the question ‘Can any non-Zoroastrian undergo Naujote?’ steadily increases from the 1976 survey to the 2003 survey, from 49% in 1976, 53% in 1985 to 61% in 2003, and the rejection response stays steady at an average of 36%, with the ‘no response’ rate dropping to 4% in 2003. According to the survey, the majority of the respondents in the 2003 survey affirmed the question about non-Zoroastrians undergoing Naujote. The attitudes of the respondents to the questions concerning non-Zoroastrians being allowed in the prayer rooms at any time in Europe changes from 45% affirm in the 1976 survey, to 41% in the 1985 survey, to 49% in the 2003 survey. However, there is a high ‘no response’ rate for this question in 2003 compared with the 1976 and 1985 surveys and the rejection rate is lower in the 2003 survey compared with the 1976 and 1985 surveys: the ‘no response’ rate for this question has increased over the three surveys.