The 2020 global percentage of adherents by religion.[1]
Christianity (28.8%)
Islam (25.6%)
Unaffiliated (24.2%)
Hinduism (14.9%)
Buddhism (4.10%)
Other religions (2.40%)
The world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, though this is not a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative degrees of civility in different societies,[2] but this concept of a ranking order has since fallen into disrepute in many contemporary cultures.
Religious demographics
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Further information: List of religious populations
Main category: Religious demographics
A map of major denominations and religions according to the Pew Research Center's 2010 study The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050
One way to define a major religion is by the number of current adherents. The population numbers by religion are computed by a combination of census reports and population surveys, in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example the United States or France. Results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count.
There is no consensus among researchers as to the best methodology for determining the religiosity profile of the world's population. A number of fundamental aspects are unresolved:
Whether to count "historically predominant religious culture[s]".[3]
Whether to count only those who actively "practice" a particular religion.[4]
Whether to count based on a concept of "self-identification as adherents".[5]
Whether to count only those who expressly self-identify with a particular denomination.[6]
Whether to count only adults, or to include children as well.
Whether to rely on official government-provided statistics.[7][failed verification]
Whether to use multiple sources and ranges or single "best source(s)".
A 2015 map showing self-reported religiosity by country.
A 2002 map showing the percentages of people who regard religion as "non-important".
A map showing the prevalence of "Abrahamic religion" (purple), and "Indian religion" (yellow) religions in each country
A 2006 map of the relative proportion of Christianity (red) and Islam (green) in each country
The 2012 distribution of world religions by country/state, and by smaller administrative regions for the largest countries:
% Christian population
% Islam population
% all other religions but Judaism (equal parts cyan/magenta - Judaism)
Classification
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Further information: Comparative religion and Sociological classifications of religious movements
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Religious traditions fall into super-groups in comparative religion, arranged by historical origin and mutual influence. Abrahamic religions originate in the Middle East,[40][41] Indian religions in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia) and East Asian religions in East Asia.[42] Another group with supra-regional influence are Afro-American religion,[43] which have their origins in Central and West Africa.
Abrahamic religions are the largest group, and these consist mainly of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. They are named for the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, and are unified by the practice of monotheism. Today, at least 3.8 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions[45] and are spread widely around the world apart from the regions around East and Southeast Asia. Several Abrahamic organizations are vigorous proselytizers.[46] Abrahamic religions with fewer adherents include the Baháʼí Faith,[47] the Druze faith,[47] Samaritanism,[47] and Rastafari.[47]
Iranian religions, partly of Indo-European origins,[48][49] include Zoroastrianism, Yazdânism, Uatsdin, Yarsanism, Manichaeism, and Yazidism.[50]
Gnosticism, including historical traditions of Mandaeism, which is still alive in the Middle East and diaspora.[51]
Eastern religions:
Indian religions, originated in Greater India and they tend to share a number of key concepts, such as dharma, karma, reincarnation among others. They are of the most influence across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as isolated parts of Russia. The main Indian religions are Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
East Asian religions consist of several East Asian religions which make use of the concept of Tao (in Chinese), Đạo (in Vietnamese) or Dō (in Japanese or Korean). They include many Chinese folk religions, Taoism and Confucianism, as well as Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese religions, which are influenced by Chinese religious thought.
Indigenous ethnic religions, found on every continent, now marginalized by the major organized faiths in many parts of the world or persisting as undercurrents (folk religions) of major religions. Includes traditional African religions, Asian shamanism, Native American religions, Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal traditions, Chinese folk religions, and postwar Shinto. Under more traditional listings, this has been referred to as "paganism" along with historical polytheism.
The religions of the tribal peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa, but excluding ancient Egyptian religion, which is considered to belong to the ancient Middle East;[44]
African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas, imported as a result of the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 18th centuries, building on traditional religions of Central and West Africa.
New religious movement is the term applied to any religious faith which has emerged since the 19th century, often syncretizing, re-interpreting or reviving aspects of older traditions such as Ayyavazhi, Mormonism, Ahmadiyya, Jehovah's Witnesses, polytheistic reconstructionism, and so forth.
History of religious categories
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The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate.(March 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
An 1821 map of the world, where "Christians, Mahometans, and Pagans" correspond to levels of civilization. The map makes no distinction between Buddhism and Hinduism.An 1883 map of the world divided into colors representing Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Mohammedans (Muslims), and Fetishists
Christian categorizations
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Initially, Christians had a simple dichotomy of world beliefs: Christian civility versus foreign heresy or barbarity. In the 18th century, "heresy" was clarified to mean Judaism and Islam;[52] along with paganism, this created a fourfold classification which spawned such works as John Toland's Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity,[53] which represented the three Abrahamic religions as different "nations" or sects within religion itself, the "true monotheism."
Daniel Defoe described the original definition as follows: "Religion is properly the Worship given to God, but 'tis also applied to the Worship of Idols and false Deities."[54] At the turn of the 19th century, in between 1780 and 1810, the language dramatically changed: instead of "religion" being synonymous with spirituality, authors began using the plural, "religions", to refer to both Christianity and other forms of worship. Therefore, Hannah Adams's early encyclopedia, for example, had its name changed from An Alphabetical Compendium of the Various Sects... to A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations.[55][56]
In 1838, the four-way division of Christianity, Judaism, Mahommedanism (archaic terminology for Islam) and paganism was multiplied considerably by Josiah Conder's Analytical and Comparative View of All Religions Now Extant among Mankind. Conder's work still adhered to the four-way classification, but in his eye for detail he puts together much historical work to create something resembling the modern Western image: he includes Druze, Yazidis, Mandaeans, and Elamites[clarification needed][57] under a list of possibly monotheistic groups, and under the final category, of "polytheism and pantheism", he listed Zoroastrianism, "Vedas, Puranas, Tantras, Reformed sects" of India as well as "Brahminical idolatry", Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Lamaism, "religion of China and Japan", and "illiterate superstitions" as others.[58][59]
The modern meaning of the phrase "world religion", putting non-Christians at the same level as Christians, began with the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. The Parliament spurred the creation of a dozen privately funded lectures with the intent of informing people of the diversity of religious experience: these lectures funded researchers such as William James, D. T. Suzuki, and Alan Watts, who greatly influenced the public conception of world religions.[60]
In the latter half of the 20th century, the category of "world religion" fell into serious question, especially for drawing parallels between vastly different cultures, and thereby creating an arbitrary separation between the religious and the secular.[61]
Islam categorizations
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In Islam, the Quran mentions three categories: Muslims, the People of the Book, and idol worshipers.
See also
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Religion portal
World portal
Irreligion
List of religions and spiritual traditions
List of religious populations
World religions
Numinous
Religious conversion
State religion
Notes
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^Historically, the Baháʼí Faith arose in 19th-century Persia, in the context of Shia Islam, and thus may be classed on this basis as a divergent strand of Islam, placing it in the Abrahamic tradition. However, the Baháʼí Faith considers itself an independent religious tradition, which draws from Islam but also other traditions. The Baháʼí Faith may also be classed as a new religious movement, due to its comparatively recent origin, or may be considered sufficiently old and established for such classification to not be applicable.
^worldvaluessurvey.org (28 June 2005). "World Values Survey". worldvaluessurvey.org. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2006.
^ abcFahmy, Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Shi and Dalia (9 June 2025). "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 13 June 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ ab"The Global Religious Landscape". The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew Research center. 18 December 2012. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
^Olupona, Jacob Kẹhinde; Rey, Terry. Òrìşà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture, p. 23. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2008. - "...more than 70 million African and New World peoples participate in or are closely familiar with, religious systems that include Ogun."
^Chryssides, George D. (2006). The A to Z of new religious movements. The A to Z guide series. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5588-5.
^Lugo, Luis; Cooperman, Alan (18 December 2012). Other Religions (Report). Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. p. 9. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
^"Jainism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 July 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
^Self-reported figures from North Korea (South Korean followers are minimal according to census): "Religious Intelligence UK report". Religious Intelligence. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
^Blagov, Sergei (31 July 1999). Religion vs Restrictions and Persecution (Speech). International Association for Religious Freedom World Congress. Vancouver. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
^"宗教年鑑" [Yearly Report on Religion] (PDF) (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. 2019. Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
^"Druze". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
^The results have been studied and found "highly correlated with other sources of data", but "consistently gave a higher estimate for percent Christian in comparison to other cross-national data sets." Hsu, Becky; Reynolds, Amy; Hackett, Conrad; Gibbon, James (9 July 2008). "Estimating the Religious Composition of All Nations". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 47 (4): 678. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00435.x.
^International Community, Baháʼí (1992). "How many Baháʼís are there?". The Baháʼís. p. 14. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2008.
^Barrett, David A. (2001). World Christian Encyclopedia. Oxford University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-19-507963-0. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
^Salem, Mohamed Omar; Foskett, John (January 2018) [Published in print in 2009]. "Religion and religious experiences". In Cook, Chris; Powell, Andrew; Sims, Andrew (eds.). Spirituality and psychiatry. Cambridge: Royal College of Psychiatrists. p. 236. ISBN 9781108609074. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
^Statistician, Howard Steven Friedman; Teacher, health economist for the United Nations; University, Columbia (25 April 2011). "5 Religions with the Most Followers". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 8 December 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
^Brodd, Jeffrey (2003). World Religions. Winona, Minnesota: Saint Mary's Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-725-5.
^ abcdAbulafia, Anna Sapir (23 September 2019). "The Abrahamic religions". www.bl.uk. London: British Library. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse, the Wheel and Language: how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian Steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton University Press.
Animated history of World Religions—from the "Religion & Ethics" part of the BBC website, interactive animated view of the spread of world religions (requires Flash plug-in).