Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| dagoba | A stupa (qv). |
| daily attenders | Affiliated Christians (church members) who attend church services daily or several times a week. |
| dancing | See trumping. |
| Daoists | Followers of the philosophical, ethical, and religious traditions of China, sometimes regarded as part of Chinese folk-religion. Also spelt Taoists. |
| Darbyites | Exclusive Brethren (qv). |
| data | Detailed information of any kind; experientially encountered facts or principles, upon which inferences or arguments can be built or from which an intellectual system of any sort can be constructed. |
| data bank | A collection of data and information organized for retrieval by a recall scheme. |
| database | A description of the principles of organization of a data bank; the raw data from which a survey manuscript is compiled. |
| databasing | Use of a large collection of data (facts or figures) in a computer, organized so that it can be expanded, updated, and retrieved rapidly. |
| datacasting | The regular broadcasting of large quantities of computerized data over the airwaves for automatic reception and use by computer users, mainly with microcomputers. |
| data-processing | The use of computers for storing, sorting, re-arranging, and retrieving information. |
| Dataria | An office of the Roman Curia where dates were added to papal letters, now charged with investigating the fitness of candidates for papal benefices. |
| de facto | (Latin). In fact, in reality, actually, existing in fact (in contrast to de jure). |
| de facto population | The actual population, enumerated population, or present-in-area population, i.e. physicallypresent whether residents or non-residents, based on exactly where people have slept or spent the night; made up of all persons actually in the area on a particular day or census date, covering residents, non-residents, visitors and transients, but excluding residents temporarily absent. |
| de jure | (Latin). By right, of right, by law, legal (in contrast to de facto). |
| de jure population | The population of a given area who normally inhabit and reside in the area, i.e. who are permanent, habitual, regular and legal residents or inhabitants, based on where people normally or regularly sleep or spend the night; consisting of all persons who habitually live or reside in the area, covering residents and temporarily-absent residents but excluding non-residents, visitors and transients. |
| deacon | A cleric in major orders ranking above a sub-deacon and below a priest, in Protestantism often a ruling lay elder. |
| deaconess | In Anglicanism, an ordained woman assigned to parish work; in Protestantism, a woman in an order or sisterhood serving the church in hospitals, schools or on the mission field. |
| deaf, the | About 365 million people (6% of the world) are deaf or have hearing problems. Many denominations and service agencies across the globe minister to the deaf (e.g. Assemblies of God, USA, has 111 all-deaf congregations with 70 pastors). |
| dean | The head of the chapter of a body of canons in an Anglican cathedral; head over 10 monks in a Catholic monastery. |
| deanery | The jurisdiction of a dean. |
| death rate | The number of deaths per year in a population expressed as a percentage or per thousand of the total population. |
| dechristianization | The process or causing to turn from Christianity or to deprive of Christian characteristics. |
| dechristianized | See disaffiliated Christians. |
| decision cards | Printed cards filled in by enquirers or professing converts at evangelistic campaigns, giving name, address, age, and nature of decision being made. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.