Stats

Methodology

Rules of the public statistics

The definitions below come from the research database and are in English.

Research questions, method, the limits of interpretation and how results about persons are released: Research

Terms of "How this was computed"

Every chart ends with a box "How this was computed". Its terms and codes are explained here; the counting rules, metrics and profiles follow below.

Epoch
One computation of all public numbers. A new epoch is computed every 15 minutes; its numbers are provisional until a data release is frozen.
Sequence
The order of books, chapters and verses the chart follows: a canon with its verse numbering (versification).
Mapping release
The state of the verse mappings between the numbering systems that was used. Verses of different Bibles are counted together through these mappings.
Records counted
How many approved entries match this chart, and from how many sources they come.
Shares of the total
Which part of the total rests on less certain ground: uncertain verse mappings, lower bounds (e.g. a repetition count that is not known) and references to whole chapters.
Passages not resolved to verses
Passages whose reference could not be turned into verses (e.g. an unknown book or a verse that does not exist). They are not counted.
Uses outside the selected canon
Verse-level uses that fall on verses outside the canon of this chart (e.g. deuterocanonical books in a Protestant canon). They are not part of the chart.

Verse status

The status of each verse position in this chart. A verse without uses is never just zero: the status says why.

excluded_by_scope
Outside the selected book, chapter or range, or excluded by a filter.
duplicate_placement
The second place of a verse that an edition prints twice. It gets no counts, so nothing is counted twice.
mapping_missing
A verse label of this numbering that is not yet linked to a neutral verse unit. Its citations cannot be counted until it is mapped.
recorded
At least one use was recorded.
unsurveyed
No use, and none of the sources covers this verse (e.g. a source limited to other books). Not a zero.
mapping_uncertain
No use, and the link of this verse to a neutral verse unit is uncertain.
zero_in_surveyed_scope
No use, although at least one source covers this verse completely: a real zero.
zero_coverage_undeclared
No recorded use, but the sources do not say whether they cover this verse completely. Most sources do not declare their coverage, so this is the usual state of a verse without uses.

Denomination levels

Denominations are recorded at four levels (owner decisions T-Q578 of 2026-11-02 and T-Q625 of 2026-11-03). Decide the level in this order:

  1. One church as an organisation, with its own leadership and membership: a church body.
  2. Several separately governed churches sharing a name, origin and confession, often with a worldwide communion or alliance: a family.
  3. One of the great streams of a religion, defined by historical origin and basic doctrine, spanning many families or churches: a tradition.
  4. A religion as a whole, above its traditions: a religion.
  5. Anything else (a congregation, a diocese, a district, an alliance that governs no one): not a denomination, but an organisation linked to its church body.
Religion
Christianity, with its traditions; Second Temple Judaism.
Tradition
In Christianity: Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, the Church of the East, and the undivided Early Church before the great divisions.
Family
For example Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, Methodist, Mennonite, Pentecostal, Anglican, Moravian Church.
Church body
For example Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden, Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg, Southern Baptist Convention, Roman Catholic Church, Russian Orthodox Church.

A church body links to its family ("member of family"), a family (or a body without a family) to its tradition ("part of tradition"), a tradition to its religion ("part of religion"). A record may have several such links, each with its period, so there is no forced universal tree. A source that says only "Protestant" is linked to the tradition.

Edge cases

  • Congregations, parishes, dioceses and districts are organisations, not denominations. An independent congregation is an organisation, with the family it names or none.
  • German Landeskirchen are church bodies. The EKD is a church body too, and each Landeskirche is linked to it by "in communion with" (T-Q580).
  • World alliances (Baptist World Alliance, Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches) are organisations.
  • The Roman Catholic Church is one church body in the Catholic tradition; each Eastern Catholic church is its own body.
  • Anglican is a family, in the Protestant tradition by default; a second link only with a source.
  • "Freikirche", "Evangelical" and "mainline" are not levels: they are classification systems, kept apart from the levels.

A statistics filter on a religion includes its traditions, their families and church bodies; a filter on a tradition includes its families and their church bodies; a filter on a family includes its bodies. A record that names only a broader denomination (for example only the tradition, when the filter is a family) counts as not evaluable by default (the "broader" case).

Counting rules

Every covered verse (baseline) CR-BASE@1baseline

The baseline rule: every mention of every verse counts; a chapter or a range counts once for each verse it covers, and an unknown repetition counts as one.

CR-BASE v1, the literal baseline of spec §6: five repetitions count as 5; reading a whole chapter counts 1 per verse; a passage of ten verses contributes 10 verse-level counts; separate mentions inside one event are counted separately. Unknown repetition counts 1 and is flagged as a lower bound. Optional pericope verses are excluded; a partial verse counts 1; uncertain mappings are counted and their share is reported (no confidence threshold); unresolved references are attributed to no unit and reported as unresolved passages; confirmed duplicate occurrences are collapsed into the record with the smaller id. Open choices are owner question Q-C1.

Text not yet reviewed.

Certain assignments only CR-CERTAIN-MAPPING@1

Like the baseline rule, but only references whose assignment to a verse is certain or of high confidence count; assignments nobody has assessed are left out.

CR-CERTAIN-MAPPING v1: as CR-BASE, but only label-to-unit mappings with confidence high or certain are counted; not_assessed never passes.

Text not yet reviewed.

Partial verses by share CR-COVERAGE-WEIGHTED@1

Like the baseline rule, but a verse that is only partly covered counts with its known share, or as one where the share is unknown.

CR-COVERAGE-WEIGHTED v1: as CR-BASE, but a partially covered verse counts its known coverage fraction, or 1 where the fraction is unknown.

Text not yet reviewed.

Without numbering-dependent passages CR-EXCLUDE-BASIS-SENSITIVE@1

Like the baseline rule, but passages whose verses depend on the verse numbering used are left out.

CR-EXCLUDE-BASIS-SENSITIVE v1: as CR-BASE, but passages whose resolution depends on the versification basis are excluded.

Text not yet reviewed.

Named verses only CR-EXPLICIT-VERSE@1

Like the baseline rule, but only references that name verses count; whole chapters and books are left out. The Top 100 verses use it, so a chapter reference does not lift every verse of the chapter.

CR-EXPLICIT-VERSE v1: as CR-BASE, but chapter, chapter-range and whole-book references contribute to verses only when the source used the whole extent (extent_semantics = extent_used). Default of the public verse charts under proposal P5 (accepted by the owner; not yet in use).

Text not yet reviewed.

Once per use CR-ONCE-PER-OCCURRENCE@1

Like the baseline rule, but a verse counts at most once per use, even when that use names it several times. Each passage of a compilation counts as a use of its own.

CR-ONCE-PER-OCCURRENCE v1: as CR-BASE, but a verse counts at most once per usage occurrence. Each passage of a compilation record is its own pseudo-occurrence.

Text not yet reviewed.

Repetitions count once CR-ONCE-PER-PASSAGE@1

Like the baseline rule, but a passage counts once for each of its verses, however often it was repeated: five repetitions count as one.

CR-ONCE-PER-PASSAGE v1: as CR-BASE, but each passage counts once per verse regardless of its repetition count.

Text not yet reviewed.

With optional verses CR-WITH-OPTIONAL@1

Like the baseline rule, but the optional and alternative verses of a reading count too (the baseline leaves them out).

CR-WITH-OPTIONAL v1: as CR-BASE, but optional and alternative pericope verses are counted.

Text not yet reviewed.

Metrics

MetricMeasure familyDefault ruleDefinition
aggregate_tally_sum@1
External reported tally		external_aggregate–Sum of third-party pre-aggregated tallies, each label counted once; what the publisher counts is shown with every chart.Text not yet reviewed.
calendar_instances@1
Prescribed calendar instances		prescribedCR-BASE@1Number of calendar dates on which the unit was prescribed (prescribed readings, not performed uses).Text not yet reviewed.
calendar_instances_excl_ferial@1
Prescribed calendar instances excluding ferial repeats		prescribedCR-BASE@1Calendar instances whose day is not a ferial repeat of a Sunday reading.Text not yet reviewed.
calendar_instances_sundays_feasts@1
Prescribed calendar instances on Sundays and feasts		prescribedCR-BASE@1Calendar instances on Sundays, feasts and holy days only.Text not yet reviewed.
distinct_prescriptions@1
Distinct prescriptions		prescribedCR-BASE@1Number of distinct lectionary prescriptions touching the unit or window (prescribed readings, not performed uses).Text not yet reviewed.
audience_exposure@1
Estimated audience exposure		usage–Interval [sum of lower bounds, sum of upper bounds] per audience measurement type; never summed across types. Occurrences with unknown audience are counted separately.Text not yet reviewed.
contiguous_segment_count@1
Contiguous segments		usage–Number of contiguous core runs per passage (alternative to passage counts).Text not yet reviewed.
contributors@1
Contributors		usage–Number of distinct contributors (aggregate only; identities are never shown).Text not yet reviewed.
gap_length@1
Gap length		usage–Number of consecutive qualifying positions (below the threshold) in a gap; blocking positions are counted separately.Text not yet reviewed.
group_share_permille@1
Share of group total (permille)		usageCR-BASE@11000 x the unit's verse-level count in the group divided by the group's total.Text not yet reviewed.
passage_occurrences@1
Passage occurrences		usage–Number of recorded reference expressions (passages) as the sources present them.Text not yet reviewed.
recorded_passage_occurrences@1
Occurrences of recorded passages		usage–Distinct usage occurrences in which a recorded passage with that unit set was observed.Text not yet reviewed.
recorded_passage_sources@1
Sources of recorded passages		usage–Distinct source documents in which a recorded passage with that unit set was observed.Text not yet reviewed.
recorded_passages_exact_n@1
Recorded passages of exactly n verses		usage–Number of stored passages whose normalized length in the selected sequence is exactly n.Text not yet reviewed.
repeated_mentions@1
Repeated mentions		usageCR-BASE@1Sum of the repetition counts of the passages; an unknown repetition counts as one and is flagged as a lower bound.Text not yet reviewed.
representation_index@1
Representation index		usageCR-BASE@1Group share divided by reference share; undefined when the reference share is zero.Text not yet reviewed.
uncertain_units@1
Uncertainly mapped units		usage–Sequence positions whose mapping is uncertain; reported next to, never as, zero counts.Text not yet reviewed.
unique_collections@1
Unique source collections		usage–Number of distinct source collections (datasets, corpora).Text not yet reviewed.
unique_events@1
Unique events		usage–Number of distinct resolved events; records without a resolved event are reported as unattributed and never counted as one shared event.Text not yet reviewed.
unique_publications@1
Unique publications		usage–Number of distinct publications (periodicals, websites, series, channels).Text not yet reviewed.
unique_sources@1
Unique sources		usage–Number of distinct source documents; records without a document are reported separately.Text not yet reviewed.
unmapped_units@1
Unmapped units		usage–Sequence positions whose label has no mapping to a neutral unit; reported next to, never as, zero counts.Text not yet reviewed.
usage_occurrences@1
Usage occurrences		usage–Number of distinct identifiable occasions of Scripture use (sermons, articles, one day's verse) with known boundaries. Compilation records are reported separately.Text not yet reviewed.
verified_observations@1
Verified observations		usage–Records whose verification level is at or above the profile threshold (default: reviewer checked against source). Verification axis only.Text not yet reviewed.
verse_level_uses@1
Verse-level uses		usageCR-BASE@1Sum over verse units of the verse-level contributions under the selected counting rule (baseline: each mention of each verse counts).Text not yet reviewed.
window_avg@1
Window average		usageCR-BASE@1Window sum divided by the number of counted positions of the window.Text not yet reviewed.
window_events_touching@1
Events touching the window		usageCR-BASE@1Distinct resolved events with a record touching the window; records without an event are reported as unattributed.Text not yet reviewed.
window_occ_covering@1
Occurrences covering the window		usageCR-BASE@1Distinct usage occurrences whose cited verses cover the whole window with whole, certainly mapped verses.Text not yet reviewed.
window_occ_possibly_covering@1
Occurrences possibly covering the window		usageCR-BASE@1As covering, but including runs with partial or uncertain verses (where the evidence permits).Text not yet reviewed.
window_occ_touching@1
Occurrences touching the window		usageCR-BASE@1Distinct usage occurrences with at least one core verse in the window; each occurrence counts once.Text not yet reviewed.
window_passages_overlapping@1
Passages overlapping the window		usageCR-BASE@1Distinct passage occurrences with at least one core verse in the window.Text not yet reviewed.
window_sources_touching@1
Sources touching the window		usageCR-BASE@1Distinct source documents with a record touching the window; records without a document are reported as unattributed.Text not yet reviewed.
window_sum@1
Window sum		usageCR-BASE@1Sum of verse-level counts across the n positions of a window.Text not yet reviewed.

Inclusion profiles

Official official@2default of every public number

The official profile of every public number: only reviewed and approved entries whose evidence quality is high enough.

Minimum evidence quality rank: 3

Record classes: occurrence

Moderation states: approved

Official profile, version 2 (owner decision of 2026-10-19): approved observed occurrences only, with an evidence quality rank of at least 3, i.e. dataset reported x unverified or self-report x contributor attested and everything above. No candidates and no donated readings. Replaces official@1 (rank 4) as the default of every public number; official@1 stays available for results that cite it.

All approved all_approved@1

Every reviewed and approved entry, without a minimum evidence quality; approved donated readings are included.

Record classes: occurrence,donated_reading

Moderation states: approved

All approved: approved occurrences and the publicly shared donated readings ("Gespendete Daten"; decomposed by record class). Research-only donations are never counted.

Including candidates including_candidates@1

Like "including unreviewed", plus candidates found by a program or a web crawl that nobody has checked yet. Not offered on the public pages.

Record classes: occurrence,candidate

Moderation states: approved,submitted,pending_review

Including candidates: occurrences and unverified machine-detected or scraped candidates that are approved, submitted or pending review; always decomposed by record class.

With donated readings including_donations@1

Approved entries plus the approved readings that people donated with their consent; a number from donations is shown only when at least 10 accounts contributed to it.

Record classes: occurrence,donated_reading

Moderation states: approved

Including donations: approved occurrences and the publicly shared donated readings ("Gespendete Daten"), counted like any other record without a threshold per number. Research-only donations are never counted.

Including unreviewed including_unverified@1

Entries that are approved, submitted or still waiting for review. Not offered on the public pages.

Record classes: occurrence

Moderation states: approved,submitted,pending_review

Including unverified: occurrences that are approved, submitted or pending review.

Official official@1replaced by official@2

The official profile of every public number: only reviewed and approved entries whose evidence quality is high enough.

Minimum evidence quality rank: 4

Record classes: occurrence

Moderation states: approved

Official profile: approved observed occurrences only, with an evidence quality rank of at least documented secondary source x unverified (rank 4; owner question Q-G6). No candidates and no donated readings.