US body to conduct county-by-county count of Sikhs

About 500,000 Sikhs live in the US but no breakdown of the population at the county or state level is available.

The US 2010 Religious Congregations Membership Study (RCMS) will include a county-by-county population count of Sikhs in the country.

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This was announced by Tarunjit Singh, secretary general of the World Sikh Council, America Region (WSC-AR).

Since the publication of the 2000 RCMS, which only included a listing of Sikh organisations at the county level, WSC-AR has worked with the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and the Glenmary Research Center (GRC) to expand the Sikh organisation census reporting to include the Sikh population at the county level, Singh told IANS.

The US Bureau of Census is currently prohibited by law from asking a question on religious affiliation; ASARB therefore has a vital role in collecting data about religious groups.

It is estimated that about 500,000 Sikhs live in the US but no breakdown of the Sikh population at the county or state level is available.