Religious Inequality in America: The View from 1916

The Censuses of Religious Bodies contain detailed information about early 20th-century American religious groups. However, these data have not been used to their full potential—likely because until recently, most of the data in these volumes had not been digitized. We undertook a large data entry initiative to make these data available to contemporary researchers. This research note introduces scholars to the data set and presents the first quantitative analysis of the wealth held (and not held) by American religious groups a century ago. By quantifying the vast historical disparities between religious traditions, we provide new empirical support for complex religion theory, which argues that religion has been and continues to be a site of stark social inequalities. We hope our findings and work digitizing these data will spur future research into how socioeconomic disparities between religious groups have persisted or been disrupted over time.