The Bahá'í Faith in Guyana was first mentioned in Bahá'í sources as early as 1916, the first Bahá'ís visited as early as 1927 but the community was founded in Guyana in 1953 with the beginning of the arrival of coordinated pioneers and from Guyanese converts. The community elected the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly in 1955 and an independent National Assembly in 1977. The country has experienced large migrations and the size of the Bahá'í community has also dramatically changed. In the most recent cycle the 2002 national census showed about 0.1%, or 500, Bahá'ís mostly in three of it's Regions though Bahá'ís were noted in every Region. However by 2005 the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated there were some 12000 Bahá'ís.