Comparison of the people who in the 2003 survey affirmed that they had completed the 1976 and/ or the 1985 questionnaires and the people in the 2003 survey who affirmed that they only completed the 2003 questionnaire
Two questions were asked in the 2003 survey about whether the respondents had taken part in the 1976 and/or the 1985 survey. The questionnaires in all three surveys were completed anonymously, so it is not possible to compare an individual’s responses to the different surveys. This section of will therefore examine the responses of the group from the 2003 survey who affirmed that they had taken part in the 1976 and/ or the 1985 survey and compare them with the group of respondents in 2003 who affirmed that they did not take part in either of the surveys of 1976 and 1985. Are the responses of the people, as groups in 2003, different from the responses given by the respondents in the 1976 and 1985 surveys? They are listed below in table 10, ‘Comparison of the five groups of respondents’.
Logically there are five groupings of the respondents. Thus, 19 respondents in the 2003 survey affirmed that they had completed the 1976 questionnaire but not the 1985 questionnaire; 66 respondents affirmed that they had completed both the 1976 and the 1985 questionnaire; 65 respondents affirmed that they had only completed the 1985 questionnaire; 450 respondents had only completed the 2003 questionnaire and not the 1976 or the 1985 questionnaires. The final category is the total group of respondents from the 2003 survey, enabling the first four categories to be compared with the total group of respondents from the 2003 survey. The figures do not add up to 603 because 3 respondents affirmed that they had completed the 1976 survey when they were too young to have done so. One respondent was not even born in 1976 and the same respondent affirmed that she had completed the 1985 questionnaire when she was not born.
However, in order to be consistent with the comparisons of the original three surveys of 1976, 1985 and 2003 discussed in the first part of this paper the next comparison will be between;
a. The respondents who affirmed that they had completed the 1976 questionnaire: 1976
b. The respondents who affirmed that they had completed the 1985 questionnaire: 1985
c. The respondents who had only completed the 2003 questionnaire: 2003 only
d. The total group of respondents who completed the 2003 questionnaire: 2003 total.
The comparison of the five logical groupings will be in the last section of the paper.
In the 2003 survey there were 85 respondents who affirmed that they answered the 1976 survey, that is 28% of the respondents of the 1976 survey, and 133 respondents who affirmed that they answered the 1985 survey, that is 27% of the respondents of the 1985 survey. Seventy seven per cent of the respondents in the 2003 survey did not take part in either the 1976 or 1985 surveys.
Of the 85 people who affirmed in the 2003 survey that they had completed the 1976 survey questionnaire ninety per cent had partners and 13% were non-Zoroastrian partners. Fifty seven per cent had undergraduate level education or higher. Forty five per cent were retired. Nineteen per cent did not have any family in Europe.
The people who affirmed in the 2003 survey, that they had responded to the 1985 survey, 133, were 68 men and 61 women. The largest age group was 60+ with 67% of the respondents. In terms of marriage, 10% had never been married and of those who had been married 15% had married non-Zoroastrians, four of whom were not of European descent. 41% had postgraduate qualifications and 21% had undergraduate qualifications. The majority were retired, but 28% had professional occupations with 13% in business and 11% white collar. The majority of the fathers had been in business and the mothers homemakers. Sixty eight per cent had extended families in Europe, 17% nuclear families and 14% no families.
For those people, 450 in number, who said in 2003 that they had not completed the 1976 and 1985 surveys, 50% were female and 49% were male with only 23% under 50 years of age. Twenty per cent were single and of those who had ever been married 30% had married out of the community. In terms of education 62% had undergraduate or higher and 11% having less than further education. Thirty per cent were in professional occupations, 14% in business, 16% white collar occupations and 24% of the respondents were retired.
The demographic profiles of the sub-groups from the 2003 survey are similar to one another in terms of educational levels and occupational levels. In fact they are more similar to one another than to the demographic profiles of the respondents in the 1976 and 1985 surveys.
Table 12 shows the comparison of the responses to the religious questions by the three sub-groups with the 2003 survey total group.
The highest per cent affirmation for the religious questions comes from the respondents who affirmed that they answered the 1976 and/or the 1985 questionnaires in the 2003 questionnaire. The respondents who affirmed that they answered the 1976 and/or the 1985 surveys in the 2003 survey, affirm the religious beliefs questions at a higher per cent level than do the respondents who only completed the 2003 questionnaire. The older respondents in the 2003 survey have definite responses whether positive or negative, when answering questions about religious beliefs and the respondents who completed the questionnaires from the 1976 and 1985 surveys will be in the elder half of the age groups, that is at least over 40 years of age. In fact, looking at the age distribution of the respondents who affirmed that they had completed the 1976 and 1985 questionnaires, there are 12 respondents, 8%, out of 153, who are less than 40 years of age. There is a higher level of ‘no response’ from the respondents who only completed the 2003 survey for the questions dealing with religious beliefs. The age distribution of the respondents, who affirmed that they had only completed the 2003 questionnaire, shows that 16%, 60 people are under the age of 50 years.