Diversity can be any attribute that makes us different from one another. Diversity is both attributive and cognitive, and can refer to differences based on cultural heritage, gender, age, language, religion, disability and sexual orientation, and to many more dimensions such as education, occupation, tenure, personality, socioeconomic status, marital or parental status, and so on. The list is almost endless!

We have given great consideration to the metrics that best capture salient diversity for any organisation. We regularly review and conduct research in order to ensure Diversity Atlas captures key diversity data. We emphasise cultural diversity, demographic diversity and intersectionality in order to provide nuanced, considered and useful insights in diversity results.

Diversity Atlas measures various aspects of both cultural and demographic diversity. In doing so it gives organisations an in-depth understanding of the types and extent of diversity within their workforce, communities, customer base, schools, beneficiaries  and more.

• Cultural diversity: country of birth x 3 generations, languages, worldview/religion and cultural heritage. These are the accepted dimensions of cultural diversity as drawn from the discipline of cultural anthropology and our own research and thought.    See below for more information on each of these pillars.
• In addition to the categories of diversity that are considered cultural, we also survey data that is primarily demographic but are also known to be significant in shaping individual attitudes, values and behaviours.  These include age, gender, disability, sexuality, appearance, education level and position.  

Based on research, and acknowledging that these weights will vary somewhat in time and place, the Diversity Atlas team created an index for measuring cultural diversity across the top four key parameters:

• Cultural Heritage – 30%
• Country of Birth - 23%
• Language – 23% 
• Worldview/Religion –24%

From here, we created a mathematical formula that generates a ‘diversity index’ based on the value of each parameter within a particular group.

For more background and technical details refer to our paper A Practical Approach to Measuring Cultural Diversity on Australian Organizations and Schools, published in the International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2017.

We are committed to periodically reviewing the weighted index. Our current review, undertaken in 2019, surveyed attitudes towards these various pillars of cultures from people in Europe, Asia and Oceania.

The data is stored in accordance with our privacy policy.

Each page of DA has an SSL certificate. Our web server is located in a highly secured domain where its security is guaranteed. All website data is backed up on a daily, weekly and monthly basis - The integrity and availability of any data on DA is our highest priority. All personal data is protected in line with any or all statutory authorities in any country, state or jurisdiction in which the survey is deployed, including but not limited to GDPR (EU).

We use the UN database of countries and follow the UN’s classification of countries and dependent territories. The criteria for the selection of countries listed in Diversity Atlas can be categorised as:

• A full member of the United Nations
• UN Non-Member Permanent Observer States
• Members of specialized agencies of the UN
• Countries connected to a full member and in the process of being decolonized
• Islands associated with a Full Member State - e.g, Christmas Island and Norfolk Island are part of Australia. 
• Non-Self Governing Territories

Or a region/ overseas territory connected to a country which is a full member of the UN such as the following:

• Overseas Territories/Collectivity/Departments/Regions of France
• Overseas Territories/Department of Britain 
• Constituent Country
• Unincorporated Territories of the US & Commonwealth
• Constituent State/Country – e.g, Antigua is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• Associated State 

We also list countries that fulfil the following three criteria:  

• Recognised by at least two UN full member states. 
• Are self-governing
• Have their own official currency, or utilise a currency from a major multi-lateral movement or a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Countries that do not meet the criteria as described in the above section are not included in our list.  For this reason, countries such as England and Tibet do not appear in the Countries page of Diversity Atlas. However, should you be in a situation where your country is not listed, as an interim measure we hope that your diversity can be attributed via the cultural heritage and language questions.

We’re committed to reviewing our databases, so please do get in touch to share your feedback.

Our list is a modified version of lists published by ‘Ethnologue’, Linguasphere and AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) database of languages and dialects.  These have been edited and expanded by Cultural Infusion.

As with all our databases, this is a living database and if we have missed any languages, please do get in touch!

Worldview is the term we use to encompass both secular and religious beliefs. We acknowledge that the term ‘worldview’ can have a variety of meanings, and in this context we draw  from the sociology of religion, and its use in reference to both religious and non-religious worldviews.  We use the term ‘worldview’ to refer to  profound questions such as those about the nature of reality. While religious traditions have historically been the dominant voices in answering these questions,  there is an increasing turn to non-religious, and/or secular frameworks for deriving meaning. For instance, Australia’s Census has shown a significant shift in how Australians identify in terms of their beliefs, and there has been a shift towards ‘No religion’ which includes secular beliefs, new age religious beliefs, atheism and the like.

Based on these trends in Australia’s changing religious demographic and in line with academic practice, we have called this question ‘worldview’ and have worked to formulate a question that is inclusive to people regardless of their beliefs and invites all users to participate. Our database incorporates religious beliefs, spiritual traditions, and secular frameworks.

Typologies of religious hierarchies are complex because they consider a range of social, organisational and belief (spiritual/existential) factors. We use a three tiered structure to classify religious groups which allows users to precisely specify their religious affiliation. At the top of the hierarchy sits the dominant category of what is, in the case of Christian religions, the ‘church’, with the sub-category of each church listed alongside. We have called the first level of sub-category a branch and the second a sub-group. We have avoided the use of terms such as denomination, sect, and school as they are often associated with particular beliefs and carry highly specific meanings that are not generalisable. 

For example:

• Christian → Protestant → Lutheran
• Islam → Sunni → Hanafi
• Buddhist → Mahayana → Zen
• Hindu → Vaishnava → Smarta
• Humanist → at present we do not have other branches or sub groups listed for humanism. Know of any? Please get in touch!

The database has drawn from a range of sources including Ethnologue, Linguasphere, AIATSIS (The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies), UN, World Religions Database and also many years of ongoing research by various members and partners of Cultural Infusion. An important feature of the databases is the ongoing coding and grouping of data according to zones, relational aspect and, where possible, the flow of communities across the globe.

Our database is an ongoing work, representative of our lifetime commitment to Diversity Atlas becoming a repository for all data around languages, speech communities, worldviews/religions, cultural heritage and national identities which will ultimately help us to understand the human journey to its fullest.

Disability is any self-reported personal, physical, mental or emotional condition that impacts a person’s life long term.  We use the term ‘disability’ rather than other nomenclatures for reasons best expressed by the Australian Network on Disability, who write on their website:  

“Differently abled”, “people of all abilities”, “disAbility”, “diffAbled”, “special needs” and the like, are all euphemistic and can be considered patronising. While the intention is usually good, these phrases tend to fall into the trap of making people with disability out to be special or inspirational, just for living with disability.”

We do not conflate gender with the biological fact of sex, so we ask both. The recognition of Trans and Non-binary (for instance) enables participants to indicate their gender when it is neither male nor female. This is consistent with DA’s goal of inclusivity and capturing relevant data in statistically small categories. 

We believe that everyone should be comfortable in bringing their ‘whole self’ to work.  An individual should not feel compelled to ‘hide’ their identities, whether it be their accent, gender or religion (or lack thereof), for instance.  How can collaboration genuinely take place if only ‘parts’ of you are contributing, or you are stuck behind a facade?  To confidently and happily bring your whole self to work implies you’re in a space that values your whole self and fosters your difference.  To feel reticent of being yourself at work will impact engagement, mental health, productivity, well-being and communication / collaboration.  

Our survey, with its 45,000 fields of available data will show each and every participant that their identities and alignments and beliefs and statuses are noted, included, counted… seen.  This will inspire them to bring their whole self to work, with confidence, and perhaps more importantly, inspire their organisation to consider their diversity profile when thinking about their aspirations, programs and work.  This is the very definition of ‘best-practice’ in our space.

By mapping an organisation's workforce diversity profile, our customers will be able to better understand how to operationalise their diversity by creating opportunities for cross-cultural understanding and leveraging linguistic, cultural and demographic assets to enhance trust and communication.  

Diversity Atlas will also improve business performance by developing truly inclusive policies that respond to real-time diversity profiles and incorporate workforce-driven feedback into organisational planning.

The key differences between our platform and a census are:

• Diversity Atlas boasts a massive database of languages, cultures, religion and worldviews, enabling participants to precisely identify their diversity profile without being confined to ‘umbrella’ terms.
• A census prepares and presents raw data, however Diversity Atlas also provides intersectional analysis and diversity measurement  (Diversity Index).
• Unlike most censuses that examine cultural diversity as just one field of inquiry, Diversity Atlas focuses solely on this, leveraging years of our anthropological, linguistic and social academic research. 

The Diversity Index is a weighted index that considers various pillars of cultural diversity: cultural heritage, country of birth, language, and worldview/religion. The number of the index has no objective quantitative value. It allows an organisation to track changes to its diversity that occur through recruitment and attrition. It is a useful way to track through a single metric and/or changes to cultural diversity levels over time. It is also a useful way to heuristically compare (with the click of a button) the diversity of different departments, states / regions, countries etc.  It will display the areas of an organisation that may be rich in diversity, too diverse, or the very opposite; this then informs an organisation as to the implications of their diversity when tracked against further metrics such as staff retention, productivity, profits and well-being.

Diversity Atlas produces one weighted diversity index, and then separate indices for each of the following metrics: country of birth diversity, language diversity, worldview/religious diversity, and cultural heritage  diversity. Having these additional / separate indices allows you to understand quickly which of the pillars are more or less diverse across departments or geographies of an organisation.

• Diversity Atlas boasts a massive database of languages, cultures, religion and worldviews, enabling participants to precisely identify their diversity profile without being confined to ‘umbrella’ terms. 
• In drawing from our databases,  participants cannot input false or offensive answers.
• Diversity Atlas also provides diversity analysis (Diversity Index).
• Diversity Atlas focuses solely on cultural diversity, whereas Google Forms (for instance) has no particular focus, analysis or academic basis. 

We use the same categories used by the Pew Research Foundation to categorise generations.

These are:

• Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
• Generation X: 1965-1980
• Millennials: 1981-1996
• Gen Z: 1997 – Present.

Please navigate to the bottom left.

Select:  ‘View As’

Choose the department you would like to see displayed on the dashboard.

Like any software product, Diversity Atlas is forever under review and development.  Features we are looking forward to introducing in the near future include:

• A time-scale ‘slider’ function, enabling you to instantly compare your diversity across time.
• Translations into other languages.  Not just the questions, but the answers as well.  As you can imagine, this is a mammoth task as we have over 45,000 ‘answers’ in our database, many of which cannot be translated at all, but we are determined to create the most inclusionary diversity survey our planet has ever seen, and the more languages we can publish, the more inclusionary it will be.
• A ‘cultural calendar’ report that reflects the particular diverse mix your organisation already has in place, alerting you to culturally important days and events that will be of significance to your team.
• The creation of Diversity Atlas as a phone ‘app’, enabling greater reach.
• A ‘hover mouse’ function that will ‘pop-up’ explanations of certain terms we use throughout the survey, or answers to FAQs.  
• The ability to create intersectional analysis of our survey questions with any additional questions your organisation provides.
• A ‘schools-only’ version of Diversity Atlas for primary or secondary school level.
• An even more comprehensive database.  What we have already is impressive, ‘awesome’ in fact, but as cultural researchers, we are amazed and inspired by learning about new, or previously obscured cultural identifiers and expressions.  We look forward to adding these to our database as they come to our attention.
• A ‘report generator’ - personalised, customised.

Do you have any ideas for improvements, refinements or additions?  As valued stakeholders, we’d love to have your input.