Research of Reginald W. Bibby

DR. REGINALD W. BIBBY is a sociologist who has been tracking social trends in Canada through a large number of national surveys of adult and young people spanning 1975 through today. Born and raised in Edmonton, he received a Ph.D. from Washington State University, an M.A. from the University of Calgary, a B.D. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, and a B.A. from the University of Alberta. He also has received honorary doctoral degrees from Laurentian University (1994) and the University of Lethbridge (2018). Following graduation from Washington State, he spend one year at York University in Toronto before embarking on a five-decade career at the University of Lethbridge. In 2006, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the nation, the Governor General appointed him an Officer of the Order of Canada.

For some five decades since 1975, Reginald Bibby has been monitoring social trends in Canada through a series of well known, "Project Canada" national surveys of adults and youth, in the process gathering pioneering and historic data on religion and young people. He has presented his findings in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, lecturing and presenting at universities including British Columbia, Victoria, Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan, Regina, Manitoba, Lakehead, Toronto, McMaster, Queen's, Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, PEI, Oxford, the London School of Economics, Notre Dame, and Harvard. He is the author of seventeen books, numerous monographs, and more than one hundred and twenty journal and magazine articles. Some 160,000 copies of his books have been sold.

Professor Bibby has conducted research and analyzes in Canada for the Roman Catholic, United, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Alliance churches, along with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. In 2016, his ground-breaking book, Canada's Catholics, co-authored with Angus Reid, was released. Dr. Bibby also is well-known to a wide variety of other groups as a researcher, consultant, and writer. His work in the United States has included a major study at the turn of the century of the ministry priorities of some thirty American denominations and close to 2,500 congregations carried out for a consortium of U.S. Protestant publishers.

Professor Bibby has also carried out surveys and data analyses for the Solicitor General of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Football League, the federal government's Social Trends Directorate, Indigenous Services Canada, the Vanier Institute of the Family, and the Province of Alberta.

He recently completed a 46-year career at the University of Lethbridge and now resides in Edmonton where he continues to keep a close eye on social trends and has been contributing to new national surveys in partnership with both Maru Public Opinion and Angus Reid.

Dr. Bibby has been one of the country's better known academics. His work has been covered in virtually all of Canada's major dailies and received front cover treatment by Maclean's magazine on four occasions – April 9, 2001, July 1, 2006, April 13, 2009, and March 30, 2015 . In addition, he has contributed articles to newspapers including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette. His extensive national television and radio appearances over the years have included the CBC, CTV, and Global national news, Canada AM, Question Period, As It Happens, Cross Country Check Up, Sunday Edition, various CBC Newsworld/News Network programs, TSN's Off the Record, such well-known, former Canadian mainstays as Peter Gzowski's Morningside, Shelagh Rogers' Sounds Like Canada, Valerie Pringle's Midday, Pamela Wallin Live, and classic regional radio programs hosted by Andy Barry (Toronto), Peter Warren (Winnipeg), Dave Rutherford (Calgary), Ron Collister (Edmonton), and Bill Good (Vancouver). In the United States, his work has been given exposure by prominent news outlets including The New York Times, the USA Today, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.

Professor Bibby's efforts to interpret his findings have taken him into an unusually wide variety of settings across North America and beyond. He has been routinely sought after for comment, data, and presentations.