The dataset used to create the examples below contains all places of worship across the United States and its territories. The data was collected and curated in 2019 and downloaded from Data World: US Places of Worship. Containing over 49,000 records, the dataset includes locations of places of worship, as well as the religious types that each facility is used by. This includes Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Judaic, and Sikh places of worship.
Conventional bar graphs will be used to familiarize us with the information. The same data will then be presented using geospatial visualizations (data placed on maps). Using maps can provide more context around the information, allowing readers to make more connections and obtain a better understanding.
Places of Worship in the United States
It behooves us to first gain an understanding of the distribution of the most popular kinds of places of worship in the United States. Figure 1 provides an interesting spread, with Christian places of worship overwhelmingly the most common. The second most prevalent is Judaic, with Buddhist and Muslim places of worship following. Hindu and other religious places of worship are the least common in the United States.
Figure 2 provides a view of the total number of places of worship in each state and territory. Additionally, we can see the split of which types of places of worship are included in each state. California and Texas, being two of the three largest states, have the most places of worship.
By viewing the same data with a proportional symbol map in Figure 3, the average locations of the establishments within each state are evident. The size of each symbol represents how many of each religion type are represented in each state by the number of worship buildings. While present in all states, there is a concentration of Christian places of worship in the eastern half of the country. The non-green circles show us where other religious places of worship have a larger presence at the state level.
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