Updates

As people groups change so does the country’s religious makeup.

Changes to the proportion of particular ethnic or language groups within a country, through migration or through varying birth rates and rates of death, all contribute, people-group by people-group, to changes in the religious makeup of a country.

Quite apart from tracking the conversion of individuals to different religions and hence changing religious affiliation within a people group, these demographic changes of peoples between countries are constantly under review in the WCD research process.

This quarter the results of primarly people-group oriented reseach in countries up to the letter ‘J’ have led to widespread and often subtle edits in countries all over the world.

The research process continues.

10th October, 2010: Netherlands Antilles officially ceases to exist.

Two of its former provinces (Curacao and St Maarten) have become autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (like Aruba in 1986), and the other three (Bonaire, St Eustatius, and Saba) become autonomous special municipalities within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The presentation of the Netherlands Antilles will remain in the database until official UN population estimates for 1950-2050 are produced for the two new countries, and the municipalities are added into the Netherlands.