religion × country × ______
The purpose of this database visualization is to illustrate the religious diversity in each country of the world (as informed by data from the CIA World Factbook), and allow users to gain a new perspective on the global landscape of religious affiliation.
Colors will be assigned to each major world religion (arbitrarily, at this point). Variations in saturation and/or brightness will be appointed to denominations or sects within each major religion. Concentric circles, pie charts, or donut charts will represent religions within each country.
Religious diversity may be viewed for each country individually (micro view), or for all countries simultaneously (macro view). In the macro view, users will be given a list of parameters from which to select, which will resort or plot the religion data against the selected parameter. These parameters could be other data from the CIA World Factbook, such as population or geographic coordinates, or from another data source, such as the Gallup Poll. The macro view will create a worldwide landscape of religions that will hopefully help the user understand religious diversity and distribution in unexpected ways.