Talk:Modern paganism in the United States

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 05:07, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

4.5 million (1990) to 10 million (2000s) Neopagans in the US

 * David Waldron. Witchcraft for Sale! Commodity vs. Community in the Neopagan Movement. Nova Religio. August 2005, Vol. 9, No. 1.

Could someone read the study and prove the accuracy of this statement? --Esimal 18:28, 15 November 2007 (UTC)


 * these numbers appear highly dubious. The 10 million claim is taken from religioustolerance.org, which in turn attributes it to a 1989 source quoting a 1986(!) source,
 * Sharon Rufus, "WHO ARE THE WITCHES?", Fate (1986 AUG), P. 59: quoted by Nelson Price in "NEW AGE, THE OCCULT AND LION COUNTRY", Power Books (1989), P. 98:
 * which in turn says the World Christian Encyclopedia (1982) claims 10 million pagans. So, to begin with, this number can hardly be applied to 2000. If the 1982 World Christian Encyclopedia really claims 10 million, it is just parroting pie-in-the-sky numbers, twisting them in connotation to alarmism. The 2001 ARIS number of 300,000 and the 1999 "Covenant of the Goddess" estimate of 770,000 for USA plus Canada, are much more plausible. The (neopagan) CoG poll is in striking agreement with the (neutral) ARIS number. Waldron (if reported accurately) deviates by a factor of 20(!), which makes him rather suspect too. Since Waldron's article concerns the "vibrant subcultures" associated in one way or another with Wicca, I can only surmise his 10 million number is intended to gesture at this wider context. I suggest we can use Waldron to point to a larger sympathetic subculture, but we should consider the ARIS and CoG figures as authoritative (at least, as authoritiative as any such number is going to be). --dab (𒁳) 20:53, 23 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The date of WCE claim is not relevant. Waldron's study is reliable, and the most recent available. --Esimal (talk) 09:41, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

This is Dr David Waldron here and the numbers cited are from reports regarding the number of Wiccan books sold by the American Book Sellers Association and has NOTHING to do with the number of US pagans except that it gives an indication of the size of the economy surrounding the sale of neo-Pagan and Wiccan paraphernalia.

I quote myself in the article here,

"While there are figures that indicate a growing industry, such as the claim by the American Booksellers Association that annual sales of Witchcraft related books have increased to from 4.5 million in 1990 to 10 million in 2000, it is difficult to determine how these statistics directly impact on the commodification of the Witchcraft revivalist movement." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.106.251.77 (talk) 11:11, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Why is the ten million number even in this article at all?
It has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. AnonMoos (talk) 14:51, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

I want to make the point here that David Waldron is refering to a "claim by the American Booksellers Association that annual sales of Witchcraft related books has increased to from 4.5 million in 1990 to 10 million in 2000" not the numbers of pagans in the United States at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.106.251.77 (talk) 11:05, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Non-Wiccan Demographics
The demographics section of this page focuses almost exclusively on Wiccans. Granted, Wicca is the largest and most well known Pagan religion, but I know we can do better. I'll be doing some research later today in hopes of expanding this section to include non-Wiccans.

On a side note, I'm rather surprised that Voices from the Pagan Census wasn't mentioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by WarriorPrincessDanu (talk • contribs) 16:37, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 01:03, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Time for a revision?
The material on this page seems a bit dated. Anybody want to start revising it with me? FULBERT (talk) 15:31, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 17 December 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Tol  (talk &#124; contribs) @ 03:41, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

Neopaganism in the United States → Modern paganism in the United States – Consistency with pages such as Modern paganism, Modern paganism in the United Kingdom, Modern paganism in Scandinavia Ingwina (talk) 16:34, 17 December 2022 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Support per WP:CONSISTENT for consistency with the main article title. Rreagan007 (talk) 18:00, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Support per WP:CONSISTENT. Shwcz (talk) 01:22, 18 December 2022 (UTC)