Scientology is an American-born movement, the creation of
L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction author with a background in the
occult. It operates out of many small centers, but these are
subordinated to Scientology "orgs" (churches), rather as parish
churches are subordinated to a cathedral. As of 1979, there were 51
Scientology churches worldwide. Of these, 23 were in the United
States, 14 in European nations, and 14 in Canada, South Africa, New
Zealand, and Australia.
Scientology Churches Full-Time Staff
Area N rate per million rate per million
--------------- -- ---------------- ----------------
Denmark 3 .59 50.0
Sweden 3 .36 16.4
United Kingdom 5 .09 10.5
West Germany 1 .02 4.5
Netherlands 1 .07 2.5
Austria 2.7
Switzerland 14.3
France 1 .02 2.7
Belgium 2.0
--------------- -- ---------------- ----------------
Europe 14 .07(a) 6.9(b)
United States 23 .10 17.9
Canada 4 .17 18.3
Australia 4 .27 13.9
New Zealand 1 .32 17.7
(a) Population of Europe based only on nations having a church.The table above reports the distribution of Scientology churches in terms of rates per million population. Also shown are the number of Scientology staff members in each nation, also computed as rates per million (Church of Scientology, 1978). The data on churches are based on very small numbers of cases and thus potentially subject to considerable random fluctuation, but the staff data represent a very large number of cases, 1,527 staff members in Europe alone, and thus will be very reliable statistically. As it turned out, the rates based on churches are reliable, too, for both sets of data tell precisely the same story (r = .95). Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are high, as they were on Indian and Eastern cults, and France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Austria are low.
The American origins of Scientology do show up in the higher overall rates for the United States as compared with Europe. However, Denmark and Sweden surpass the United States in receptivity to Scientology, and Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also equal or surpass America. Once again we see that the popular image of the United States as the land of cults is inaccurate. Other nations, including some in Europe, are just as hospitable.
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