Religions of the World

POPULATIONS OF THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RELIGION
	Africa	Asia	Europe	Latin America	Northern America	Oceania	WORLD	%
Baha'i	1,851,000	3,010,000	93,000	719,000	356,000	75,000	6,104,000	0.11
Buddhist	36,000	320,691,000	1,478,000	569,000	920,000	200,000	323,894,000	5.67
Mahayana, 56%	.	.	.	.	.	.	181,380,000	3.17
Theravada, 38%	.	.	.	.	.	.	123,080,000	2.15
Tantrayana, 6%	.	.	.	.	.	.	19,434,000	0.35
Chinese folk religion	12,000	224,828,000	116,000	66,000	98,000	17,000	225,137,000	3.94
Confucian (non-Chinese)	1,000	5,220,000	4,000	2,000	26,000	1,000	5,254,000	0.09
Christian	348,176,000	306,762,000	551,892,000	448,006,000	249,277,000	23,840,000	1,927,953,000	33.73
Roman Catholic, 50%	122,108,000	90,041,000	270,677,000	402,691,000	74,243,000	8,265,000	968,025,000	16.93
Protestant, 21%	109,726,000	42,836,000	80,000,000	31,684,000	123,257,000	8,364,000	395,867,000	6.93
Orthodox, 11%	29,645,000	1,4881,000	165,795,000	481,000	6,480,000	666,000	217,948,000	3.81
Anglican, 4%	25,362,000	707,000	30,625,000	1,153,000	6,819,000	5,864,000	70,530,000	1.23
other, 14%	61,335,000	158,297,000	4,795,000	11,997,000	38,478,000	681,000	275,583,000	4.82
Ethnic	72,777,000	36,579,000	1,200,000	1,061,000	47,000	113,000	111,777,000	1.96
Hindu	1,535,000	775,252,000	1,522,000	748,000	1,185,000	305,000	780,547,000	13.65
Vaishnavite, 70%	.	.	.	.	.	.	546,383,000	9.56
Shaivite, 25%	.	.	.	.	.	.	195,137,000	3.41
neo / reform, 2%	.	.	.	.	.	.	15,611,000	0.27
Jain	58,000	4,804,000	15,000	4,000	4,000	1,000	4,886,000	0.09
Jewish	163,000	4,294,000	2,529,000	1,098,000	5,924,000	91,000	14,117,000	0.25
Mandean	0	44,000	0	0	0	0	44,000	0.00
Muslim	300,317,000	760,181,000	31,975,000	1,329,000	5,450,000	382,000	1,099,634,000	19.24
Sunni, 83%	.	.	.	.	.	.	912,696,000	15.97
Shia, 16%	.	.	.	.	.	.	175,942,000	3.08
other, 1%	.	.	.	.	.	.	10,996,000	0.19
New religions (founded since 1800)	19,000	118,591,000	808,000	913,000	956,000	10,000	121,297,000	2.12
Parsee (Zoroastrian)	1,000	184,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	189,000	0.00
Sikh	36,000	18,130,000	490,000	8,000	490,000	7,000	19,161,000	0.34
Shinto	0	2,840,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	2,844,000	0.05
Spiritist	4,000	1,100,000	17,000	8,768,000	300,000	1,000	10,190,000	0.18
Other religions	88,000	98,000	443,000	184,000	1,068,000	42,000	1,923,000	0.03
Secular	3,000,000	875,349,000	134,415,000	18,528,000	26,720,000	3,462,000	1,061,474,000	18.57
Agnostic / indifferent	2,573,000	701,175,000	94,330,000	15,551,000	25,050,000	2,870,000	841,549,000	14.72
Atheist	427,000	174,174,000	40,085,000	2,977,000	1,670,000	592,000	219,925,000	3.85
TOTALS	728,074,000	3,457,957,000	726,999,000	482,005,000	292,841,000	28,549,000	5,716,425,000	100.00
	Africa	Asia	Europe	Latin America	Northern America	Oceania	WORLD	%
all Christian	348,176,000	306,762,000	551,892,000	448,006,000	249,277,000	23,840,000	1,927,953,000	33.73
all non-Christian	379,898,000	3,151,195,000	175,107,000	33,999,000	43,564,000	4,709,000	3,788,472,000	66.27
all religious	725,074,000	2,582,608,000	592,584,000	463,477,000	266,121,000	25,087,000	4,654,951,000	81.43
all secular	3,000,000	875,349,000	134,415,000	18,528,000	26,720,000	3,462,000	1,061,474,000	18.57
Data source: Encyclopædia Britannica Book of the Year 1996

PATTERNS

(Revised 14 May 2001)

If we examine modern-day religion in a global context, some interesting patterns come to light:

No religious group even comes close to enjoying a global majority. The largest single group, comprising all the various Christian sects, is outnumbered two-to-one by non-Christians worldwide.

Christians vastly outnumber non-Christians in Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. In Asia, however, where the majority of the world's population resides, non-Christians outnumber Christians more than ten-to-one.

Muslims are the second-largest religious group, and Hindus the fourth-largest. The Muslim population is perhaps the most evenly distributed about the globe, whereas 99 percent of the world's Hindu population is concentrated in southern Asia.

The third-largest group, making up almost one fifth of the world's population, comprises unbelievers and disbelievers. Secularists make up about 1/3 of Asians, 1/5 of Europeans, 1/8 of the population of Oceania, and 1/10 of people in the U.S. and Canada. They are most outnumbered in Africa and Latin America.

Though a minority in the U.S., Roman Catholics account for fully half of all Christians worldwide, Protestants and Anglicans together for only about a quarter.

Roman Catholics are the world's largest individual religious sect, yet they are slightly outnumbered by secularists.

Spiritual non-theists — e.g., Buddhists, Confucians, spiritists, etc. — number about twice those who classify themselves as atheists. If this number is added to the number of secularists, we find that the number of people who do not believe in a god in the conventional sense of the term make up between one fourth and one third of the world's population. Spiritual and secular non-theists together number more than any single theistic group except Christians.