Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| pilgrim | One who travels to visit a shrine or holy place as a devotee. |
| poll | An opinion inquiry taken at a single point in time, from a very small carefully-constructed sample (usually around 1,500-2,500 adults) representative of the entire adult population, to solicit answers to carefully-formulated questions, in order to derive information applicable to that entire population. |
| polytheism | Belief in or worship of a plurality of gods. |
| polytheist | One who believes in or worships a plurality of gods. |
| polytheists | Ethnoreligionists (q.v.) who worship several or many gods and deities. |
| popular religion | Term covering all widespread or popular expressions of religion held by the masses including non- Christian expressions and folk religion as well as christianized popular religiosity (qv) and popular piety (qv). |
| popular religiosity | Christianized but deviant popular expressions of religion widely espoused by the masses, especially by the poor in Latin American countries, the most widespread groupings being Christo-pagans (qv) and Spiritist Catholics (qv). |
| popular-religionists | Practitioners of popularized versions of Christianity often combined with non-Christian features or superstitions. |
| Portion_Not_Covered | Portion of population not covered in census (see Survey note) |
| post-religious | Persons or populations who have abandoned any form of religion or quasi-religion. |
| practice, religious | Minimum attendance at church service on major festivals (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost). |
| practicing Muslims | Muslims who, regularly or at least annually, practice all required Muslim duties |
| practitioners | In a religion, its practicing members, followers, adherents, who actively follow religious precepts and standards. |
| prayer tower | (1) In Muslim usage, a minaret. (2) In Christian usage, a tower specially set aside for continuous prayer. |
| primal religionists | Original or primitive religionists in an area, animists, shamanists, spirit-worshippers, ancestor-venerators, polytheists, pantheists, tribal religionists, traditional religionists; sometimes called pagans, heathen, fetishists; usually exclusive to a particular tribe or people, hence nonmissionary in emphasis; local as contrasted with universal religionists (qv). |
| primary religious group | A sociological term for a denomination; defined as a social entity or group which claims the exclusive or primary religious affiliation or allegiance of its members, attempting to serve not specialized needs but the overall needs of its members, ministering to them on a regular, weekly or even daily basis. |
| primitive religionists | Tribal religionists (qv). |
| professing | Declaring, stating, confessing, self-identifying. |
| prophet | (1) A Biblical, especially Old Testament, revealer, spokesman or seer. (2) An official or office-holder in some pentecostal churches. (3) A charismatic leader of a new religious movement of any sort. |
| proselytism | A manner of behaving, contrary to the spirit of the gospel, using dishonest methods to attract men to a community, e.g. by exploiting their ignorance or poverty. |
| Protestants | Christians in churches originating in, or reformulated at the time of, or in communion with, the Western world’s 16th-century Protestant Reformation in European languages usually called Evangéliques (French), Evangelische (German), Evangélicos (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish), though not usually Evangelicals (in English). |
| provinces_100cases_pct | Percent of provinces where there are over 100 people sampled. |
| provinces_covered_pct | Percent of provinces covered in survey. |
| pseudo-religions | See quasi-religions. |
| puja, pooja | (Sanskrit). AHindu rite, religious festival, or act of worship or propitiation. |
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