Surveying Taiwanese Christianity: The Taiwan Christianity Surveys in Conversation with World Christianity

In Taiwan there has been relatively little data on the demographics of Christians. In the past, denominations, missionaries, and others kept some data. Recently, a group of sociologists conducted two major surveys. The results provide snapshots of how Christianity in Taiwan looks. The first part of this article treats some of the challenges in conducting the surveys as well as some major findings. The second half of the article asks how this type of data might inform studies of World Christianity as a field of study, or how this demographic data may sit alongside the more popular tools of ethnography.