How many religious in the world?
More than ten people worldwide are identified with a religious group.
A comprehensive population study of more than 230 countries and regions conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Forum estimates that there are 5.8 billion,
there are many religious-affiliated adults and children representing 84% of the 6.8 billion population worldwide.
Demographic study based on more than 2,500 censuses, survey,
and analysis of population records 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%),
1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million worldwide as of 2010 Buddhist (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%).
In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice African traditional religions,
Chinese folk religions, Indigenous folk or traditional religions. American religions and Australian native religions.
An estimated 58 million people – less than 1% of the world’s population –
live in the Bah’ Faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Henrico, Wicca,
and Zoroastrianism.1
At the same time, the new study by Pew Forum finds that one in roughly six
people (1.1 billion or 16%) in the world have no religious devotion.
This makes non-affiliates the third-largest religious group in the world,
behind Christians and Muslims, and the Catholic population of the world in equal size.
Research shows that many of the non-affiliates have some religious or spiritual beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit), although they do not identify with a particular belief. (See Religiously Independent).
Geographical distribution
The geographical distribution of religious groups is quite variable.
Many religious groups are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, mostly
Hindus (99%), Buddhists (99%), supporters of folk or traditional religions
(90%), and other members. and members of other world religions (89%). )
Three-quarters (76%) of those who are not religiously connected live in the large and crowded Asia-Pacific region.
Indeed, the number of people who are not religiously connected only in China (about 700 million) is more than double the total population of the USA.
The Asia-Pacific region is home to most of the Muslims in the world (62%). About 20% of Muslims live in the Middle East and North Africa, and about 16% live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Christians, one of the main religious groups discussed in this study, are the most equally distributed people. Roughly equal numbers of Christians live in Europe (26%), Latin America and the Caribbean (24%), and sub-Saharan Africa (24%).
While a large number of Jews (44%) live in North America, about four (41%) live in the Middle East and North Africa – almost all in Israel.
Living as a Majority and Minority
About three quarters (73%) of people in the world live in countries where religious groups make up the majority of the population. Only a quarter (27%) of all people live as religious minorities.
(This study does not include subgroups of eight major groups, such as Shia Muslims living in Sunni-majority countries or Catholics living in Protestant majority.)
With an overwhelming majority, Hindus and Christians tend to live in the countries in which they are predominant.
97% of all Hindus live in three Hindu majority countries (India, Mauritius, and Nepal), and about ten of the Christians (87%) are located in 157 Christian majority countries of the world.
(To see the religious composition of each country, see the Table of Religious Composition by Country.)
Despite smaller margins, most Muslims (73%) and people who are not religiously affiliated (71%) also live in countries where they are the dominant religious group.
Muslims are the majority in 49 countries, including 19 out of 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
It accounts for the majority of the population in six countries, which are not religiously independent and are by far the largest in China.
(Others are Czech Republic, Estonia, Hong Kong, Japan, and North Korea.)
Many of the other major religious groups live in countries where they are minorities.
For example, ten tenths (72%) live as religious minorities. Only one-third (28%) lives in seven countries where Buddhists are the majority: Bhutan,
Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
The only country that has a large Jewish people in Israel. There are no countries where members of other religions (Bahais, Jains, Shiniest, Sikhs, Taoists, followers of Tenrikyo, Wiccans, and Zoroastrians) make up the majority of the population. There are also countries where people identified with the people or traditional religions are clearly majority.2
Young and old
The average populations of some religions are much younger than others. Partially, age differences reflect the geographic distribution of religious groups.
Those who are a big supporter of rapidly growing, developing countries tend to have a younger population.
Those concentrated in China and advanced industrial countries, where population growth is slow, tend to be older.
The median age of the two large groups – Muslims (23 years) and Hindus (26) – is younger than the median age of the world general population (28) .3 All other groups are older than the global median.
The average age of Christians is 30, followed by members of other religions (32), supporters of folk or traditional religions (33),
non-religious affiliates (34), and Buddhists (34). Jews have a dozen years older than the youngest median Muslims (36).
About the Study
These are important findings of a new study of the global religious landscape run by the Pew Religion and Public Life Forum as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project,
which analyzes religious change and its impact on communities around the world.
The demographic study explores the size,
geographic distribution, and the median age of eight key religious groups (including non-affiliates),
representing 100% of the 2010 global population that are not foreseen together.
The study is based on a country-based analysis of more than 2,500 national censuses, large-scale surveys,
and official population records collected, evaluated, and standardized by the demographers and other research staff of the Pew Forum.4 countries have recently conducted a national census.
they are in the middle of that. Therefore, new data is likely to emerge over the next few years.
However, at some point it was necessary to cut the data collection; this report is based on information available as of early 2012.5
For estimates of the religious structure of each country, see. Religious Composition by Country table.
See Annex A for details on the methodology used to produce religious population estimates in 232 countries and regions. See Annex B for a list of data sources by country.
Look at the sortable see the population of each country and region divided into eight major religious groups in numbers and percentages.
There are some minor differences between the predictions presented in this study and the previous Pew Forum predictions of the Christian and Muslim populations around the world.
These differences reflect the availability of new data sources, such as the recently released censuses in several countries,
and the use of population growth projections to update estimates in countries with older primary sources. (See Methodology for more details.)
Identification of Religious Groups
This study is based on self-definition. It tries to estimate the number of people who see themselves as belonging to various religious groups in different parts of the world.
It does not attempt to measure the extent to which members of these groups actively practice their beliefs or how religious they are.
To obtain comparable statistics across countries, the study tries to count groups and individuals and individuals associated with three, as members of the five widely recognized world religions (Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, and Jews).
Other religious categories that may be less familiar are:
Folk or Traditional Religions
Folk religions are closely related to certain people, ethnicity, or tribe. In some cases, elements of other world religions blend with local beliefs and traditions.
These beliefs generally do not have formal beliefs or scriptures. Examples of folk religions are African traditional religions,
Chinese folk religions, Native American religions, and Australian native religions.
Religiously Independent
The religiously unconnected population includes atheists, agnostics, and people who do not identify with a particular religion in polls.
However, most of those who are not religiously bound have religious or spiritual beliefs.
For example, various studies have found that belief in God or higher power is shared by 7% of unconnected Chinese adults, 30% of unconnected French
adults and 68% of unconnected US adults.6
Other Religions
The category of “other religions” is diverse and includes groups that are not classified elsewhere.
This category includes followers of religions that are not usually measured separately in censuses and surveys: Baha’i faith, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism, and many other religions.
Due to the lack of data on these beliefs in many countries, the Pew Forum did not attempt to estimate the size of individual religions in this category, but there are some rough estimates from other sources as well.
(See Agenda on Other Religions.)
Roadmap to Report
These and other findings are discussed in more detail in the rest of this report (one for each of the major religious groups) in order of size, divided into eight sections:
Christians
Muslims
Religiously Independent
Hindus
Buddhists
People of the People
Other Religions
Jewry
To discuss the geographical distribution of religious groups, this report divides the world into six main regions: Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. See the Methodology for a list of countries in each region.
Footnotes:
1 While some beliefs in the “other religions” group have millions of fans worldwide, censuses and surveys in many states do not specifically measure them specifically. Estimates of the global dimension of these beliefs often come from other sources, such as religious groups themselves. According to the World Religion Database, the largest of these groups are Sikhs numbered 25 million. For more information. Agenda on Other Religions. (back to text)
2 For a discussion about the difficulties of measuring the prevalence of folk or traditional religions, see Folk Dinners. (back to text)
3 The median in a population is the midpoint if the entire population is ordered by a trait such as age or income.
If everyone living in 2010 ranks from the smallest to the largest, the middle (median) person will be 28 years old. (back to text)
4 Population registration is a list of all permanent residents of a country. See the United Nations Statistics Division’s description of population records
5 For example, in December 2012, just before the publication of this report, new religious data was published from the 2011 Census of England and Wales.
The new data points to a slightly different religious landscape than this study makes for the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland),
which is mainly based on Britain’s 2010 Annual Population Survey. National Statistics Office. (back to text)
6 For more information about the beliefs and practices of non-religiously connected adults in the United States,
see the topic “Nones” on the Rise in the Pew Forum’s October 2012 report. Pew Forum’s US surveys often ask the belief of “God or a universal spirit.” French results are based on the Pew Forum analysis of 2008
International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data. The ISSP research asks faith in God or “some kind of higher power.”
The Chinese results are based on the Pew Forum analysis of the 2007 Chinese People’s Spiritual Life Study conducted by the Chinese crater company Horizon.
In China, belief in God’s statistics measures faith in God, gods, spirits, ghosts, or Buddha. (back to text)
