Summary of the comparisons of the original 1976, 1985 and 2003 surveys

In Research Paper Comparision of the three postal surveys of European Zoroastrians 1976, 1985, and 2003

The comparisons show that Zoroastrians as a group of people who are established in Europe with the numbers of respondents who were born in Europe increasing with each survey. Educational qualifications rose across the three surveys with more respondents having postgraduate qualifications. There is an increase in the age of the respondents and less young people answered the 2003 survey than answered the 1976 or the 1985 survey. More women who have married non-Zoroastrians took part in the survey in 2003 than did in the 1976 and 1985 surveys.

In the detailed analyses of the responses to the five religious practices questions similar percentages of respondents, on average 27%, affirmed the five religious practices questions from the three surveys and a tiny percentage rejected them, on average 3%.  There was a low percentage of respondents, on average 11%, who are married to non-Zoroastrians who affirm these five practices questions. In the 1976 and 1985 surveys there were a high percentage of postgraduates who rejected the five religious practices questions but by the 2003 survey this had changed to a high percentage of postgraduates who affirmed the five religious practices questions. A high proportion of the postgraduates affirming five the religious practices questions 82%, (48), were born outside Europe and 43%, (25), of them had had their postgraduate education outside Europe. Only in the 2003 survey were there respondents who accepted or rejected all eight of the religious beliefs questions but their numbers were small seven and five respectively. There was 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 1976 survey no respondents rejected all the questions about the symbolic boundaries. By the 1985 survey 9%, 43 respondents rejected all the four questions relating to the symbolic boundaries and in the 2003 survey 5%, 30 respondents rejected all four of them.