Major religious groups

Religions of the world, mapped by distribution, with no sects.

Major religious groups as a percentage of the world population in 2005 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). In summary, religious adherence of the world's population is as follows: "Abrahamic religions": 53.5%, "Indian religions": 19.7%, irreligious: 14.3%, "East Asian religions": 6.5%, tribal religions: 4.0%, new religious movements: 2.0%.

Predominant religions of the world, mapped by state

Map showing the prevalence of "Abrahamic religion" (purple), and "Indian religion" (yellow) religions in each country.

Map showing the relative proportion of Christianity (red) and Islam (green) in each country.

The world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups or world religions. According to the 2005 survey of Encyclopædia Britannica, the vast majority of religious and spiritual adherents follow Christianity (33% of world population), Islam (20%), Hinduism (13%), Chinese folk religion (6.3%) or Buddhism (5.9%). The irreligious and atheists make up about 14%, and about 4% follow indigenous tribal religions.

These spiritual traditions may be either combined into larger super-groups, or separated into smaller sub-denominations. Christianity, Islam and Judaism (and sometimes the Bahá'í Faith) are summarized as Abrahamic religions. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism are classified as Indian religions (or Dharmic religions). Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto are classified as East Asian religions (or Far Eastern, Chinese, or Taoic religions).

Conversely, the major spiritual traditions may be parsed into denominations:

• Christianity into Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Nestorianism (see Christian denominations)
• Islam into Sunni, Shi'a, Sufism, and Kharijites (see divisions of Islam)
• Hinduism into Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Smartism, and others (see Hindu denominations)
• Buddhism into Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana (see Schools of Buddhism)
• Judaism into Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform (see Jewish denominations)

For a more comprehensive list of religions and an outline of some of their basic relationships, please see the article list of religions.

World religions

Historical notions

The concept of "world religion" is historically based on a subjective perception of temporal or theological importance, usually from a Western, "Christian" (or at least "Abrahamic") perspective.^{[citation needed]}

Early Christian scholars, the earliest known classifiers of major religions, recognized two "proper" religions, Christianity and Judaism, besides heretical deviations from Christianity, and idolatrous relapse or paganism. Islamic theology recognizes Christians and Jews as "People of the Book" rather than idolaters, however, Christians are criticized for believing in Christ as God incarnate, rather than considering Christ as one prophet and/or messenger along with others (especially Muhammad in particular). The Christian view long classified Islam's rejection of Christ's divinity as one heresy among others. The concept of the Trinity is often seen as a fundamental conflict between Islam and some interpretations of Christianity to this day.^{[citation needed]}

Attempts to identify and classify additional religions expanded during the Enlightenment however, and by the 19th century Western scholars considered the five "world religions" to be Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. These remain the classic "world religions."^{[citation needed]}

Modern classifications

Modern classifications typically list major religious groups by number of adherents, not by historical or theological notability. Most dramatically, this affects Judaism, which holds the position of "world religion" as the foundational tradition of the "Abrahamic" group, but which in terms of adherents ranks below 0.25% of world population, behind Sikhism.^{[citation needed]}

The remaining four classic world religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, are the largest contemporary religions by far. They each have more than 300 million adherents, more than ten times the number of the next largest organized religion (Sikhism, ca. 19 million per the Christian Science Monitor source cited below).

A person is typically considered an adherent or follower of a particular religion if the person would self-identify the religion as the primary characterization of their religious perspective^[1]. Similarly, a religion is typically considered to fall within a larger religious category (e.g., Protestantism falling within Christianity) if the followers of the religion self-identify that classification as appropriate.

An example of a modern listing of "world religions" is that of the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, listing twelve "long established, major world religions, each with over three million followers", alphabetically:

Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, Vodou.

The Adherents.com list of "twelve classical world religions" is nearly identical, but replaces Vodou with Zoroastrianism.

The "World's Major Religions" list published in the New York Public Library Student's Desk Reference^[2] omits Vodou and Zoroastrianism, as well as Jainism and Sikhism, but lists the Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism as separate religions.

The Christian Science Monitor, in a 1998 article "Top 10 Organized Religions in the World," provides a listing of the largest "organized religions" ^[3]:

In comparison with the Ontario Consultants list above, the Christian Science Monitor omits Taoism and Vodou as "non-organized."

Other "major religions" listed by Adherents.com (2007), not found on the above lists, are:

• Tribal religions (Shamanism, Animism): roughly 300 million
• African traditional and diasporic (including Vodou): roughly 100 million^[4]
• Chinese traditional (including Taoism and Confucianism): 394 million
• Juche (North Korean state ideology): 19 million
• Cao Dai: 4 million
• Tenrikyo: 2 million
• Neopaganism: 1 million
• Unitarian Universalism: 800,000
• Rastafarianism: 600,000

Classification

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Main articles: Comparative religion and Sociological classifications of religious movements

Religious traditions fall into super-groups in comparative religion, arranged by historical origin and mutual influence. Abrahamic religions originate in the Middle East, Indian religions in India and Far Eastern religions in East Asia. Another group with supra-regional influence is African diasporic religions, which have their origins in Central and West Africa.

• Abrahamic religions are by far the largest group, and these consist primarily of Christianity, Islam and Judaism (sometimes Bahá'í Faith is also included). They are named for their common patriarch Abraham, and are unified by their strict monotheism. Today, around 3.4 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions and are spread widely around the world apart from the regions around southeast Asia and China.^[5]

• Indian religions originated in Greater India and tend to share a number of key concepts, such as dharma and karma. They are of the most influence across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, South East Asia, as well as isolated parts of Russia. The main Indian religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. Indian religions mutually influenced each other.

• Far Eastern religions consist of several East Asian religions which make use of the concept of Tao (in Chinese) or Do (in Japanese or Korean). They include Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion, Shinto, Chondogyo, Caodaism and Yiguandao, as well as Far Eastern Buddhism (in which the group overlaps with the "Indian" group).

• Iranian religions include Zoroastrianism, Yazdanism and historical traditions of Gnosticism (Mandaeanism, Manichaeism). It has significant overlaps with Abrahamic traditions, e.g. in Sufism, and in recent religions such as Bábísm and the Bahá'í Faith.

• 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.

• Indigenous tribal religions, formerly found on every continent, now marginalized by the major organized faiths, but persisting as undercurrents of folk religion. Includes African traditional religions, Asian Shamanism, Native American religions, Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal traditions and sometimes arguably Chinese folk religion (overlaps with Far Eastern religions).

• New religious movements, a heterogeneous group of religious faiths emerging since the 19th century, often syncretizing, re-interpreting or reviving aspects of older traditions (Bahá'í, Hindu reform movements (Hindu revivalism), Ayyavazhi, Pentecostalism, polytheistic reconstructionism), some inspired by science-fiction (UFO religions, Scientology). See List of new religious movements, list of groups referred to as cults.

Demographic distribution of the major super-groupings mentioned is shown in the table below (with number of followers estimates from Adherents.com for groups having such figures available there):

Religious demographics

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Religious demographics. (Discuss)

Further information: List of religious populations

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 USA or France), but 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]"^[6]
• Whether to count only those who actively "practice" a particular religion^[7]
• Whether to count based on a concept of "adherence"^[8]
• Whether to count only those who expressly self-identify with a particular denomination^[9]
• Whether to count only adults, or to include children as well.
• Whether to rely only on official government-provided statistics^[10]
• Whether to use multiple sources and ranges or single "best source(s)"

Largest religions or belief systems by number of adherents

This reliability is also not established. relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources. (November 2007)

This listing^[a] includes both organized religions, which have unified belief codes and religious hierarchies, and informal religions, such as Chinese folk religions. For completeness, it also contains a category for the non-religious, although their views would not ordinarily be considered a religion.

1. Christianity: 2.1 billion, with major branches as follows: ^[f]
   • See also the List of Christian denominations by number of members and List of Christian denominations pages (Non-denominational statistics are not shown.)
   • Roman Catholic Church: 1.05 billion
   • Eastern Orthodox Church: 240 million
   • African Initiated Church: 110 million
   • Pentecostalism: 105 million
   • Reformed/Presbyterian/Congregational/United: 75 million
   • Anglicanism/Episcopal Church: 73 million
   • Baptist: 70 million
   • Methodism: 70 million
   • Lutheran: 64 million
   • Spiritism: 15 million^[f]
   • Jehovah's Witnesses: 14.8 million
   • Latter-day Saints: 12.5 million
   • Seventh-day Adventist Church: 12 million
   • Apostolic/New Apostolic: 10 million
   • Restoration Movement: 5.4 million
   • New Thought (Unity, Christian Science, etc.): 1.5 million
   • Brethren (incl. Plymouth): 1.5 million
   • Mennonite: 1.25 million
   • Friends/Quakers: 300,000
2. Islam: 1.5 billion, with major branches as follows:^[d]
   • Sunni: 940 million
   • Shia: 120 million
   • Ahmadi: 10 million
   • Druze: 450,000
3. Secular/irreligious/agnostic/atheist/antitheistic/antireligious: 1.1 billion
   • Category includes a wide range of beliefs, without specifically adhering to a religion or sometimes specifically against dogmatic religions. The category includes humanism, deism, pantheism, rationalism, freethought, agnosticism and atheism. Broadly labeled humanism, this group of non religious people are third largest in the world. For more information, see the Adherents.com discussion of this category and the note below. ^[c]
4. Hinduism: 900 million, with major branches as follows:
   • Vaishnavism: 580 million
   • Shaivism: 220 million
   • Neo-Hindus and Reform Hindus: 22 million
   • Veerashaivas/Lingayats: 10 million
5. Chinese folk religion: 394 million
   • Not a single organized religion, includes elements of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and traditional nonscriptural religious observance (also called "Chinese traditional religion").^[b]
6. Buddhism: 376 million, with major branches as follows:
   • Mahayana: 185 million
   • Theravada: 124 million
   • Vajrayana/Tibetan: 20 million
7. Primal indigenous (tribal religions): 300 million
   • Not a single organized religion, includes a wide range of traditional or tribal religions, including animism, shamanism and paganism. Since African traditional and diasporic religions are counted separately in this list, most of the people counted in this group are in Asia.
8. African traditional and diasporic: 100 million
   • Not a single organized religion, this includes several traditional African beliefs and philosophies such as those of the Yoruba, Ewe (Vodou) and the Bakongo. These three religious traditions (especially that of the Yoruba) have been very influential to the diasporic beliefs of the Americas such as Condomble, Santeria and voodoo. The religious capital of the Yoruba religion is at Ile Ife.
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Judaism: 14 million, with major branches as follows:
    • Conservative: 4.5 million
    • Unaffiliated and Secular: 4.5 million
    • Reform: 3.75 million
    • Orthodox: 2 million
    • Reconstructionist: 150,000
11. Bahá'í Faith: 7 million
12. Jainism: 4.2 million, with significant branches as follows:
    • Svetambara (White clad): 4,000,000
    • Sthanakvasi: 750,000
    • Digambar (Sky clad): 155,000
13. Shinto: 4 million
    • This number states the number of actual self-identifying practising primary followers of Shinto. If everyone were included who is considered Shinto by some people due to ethnic or historical categorizations, the number would be considerably higher — as high as 100 million (according to the adherents.com source used for the statistics in this section).
14. Cao Dai: 4 million
15. Tenrikyo: 2 million
16. Neopaganism: 1 million
    • A blanket term for several religions like Wicca, Asatru, Neo-druidism, and polytheistic reconstructionist religions
17. Unitarian Universalism: 800,000
18. Rastafari: 600,000
19. Scientology: 500,000
20. Zoroastrianism: 150,000-250,000,^{[11][12][13][14]} as substantiated by the detailed discussion sections at adherents.com^[15][16], although in its top-level overview list the same source provides a substantially different estimate.^[e] The breakdown by major communities is as follows:
    • In India (the Parsis): est. 65,000 (2001 India Census: 69,601); Estimate of Zoroastrians of Indian origin: 100,000-110,000.
    • In Iran: est. 20,000 (1974 Iran Census: 21,400)

Notes

By region

Further information: Religion in present-day nations and states and National church

• Religion in Africa
• Religion in Asia
  • Religion in India
  • Religion in China
  • Muslim world (SW Asia and N Africa)
• Religion in North America
  • Religion in the United States
• Religion in South America
• Religion in Australia
• Religion in Europe
  • Religion in the European Union

Trends in adherence

This material is neither peer-reviewed nor otherwise accompanied by a description of methodology or an assertion of adherence to scientific methods. It relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources. (November 2007)

World map based on the results of a 2002 Pew Research Center study on the percentage of people who regard religion as "important"

World map showing the percentages of people who regard religion as "non-important"

Since the late 19th century the demographics of religion have changed a great deal. Some countries with a historically large Christian population have experienced a significant decline in the numbers of professed active Christians. Symptoms of the decline in active participation in Christian religious life include declining recruitment for the priesthood and monastic life, as well as diminishing attendance at church. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of people who identify themselves as secular humanists. In many countries, such as the People's Republic of China, communist governments have discouraged religion, making it difficult to count the actual number of believers. However, after the collapse of communism in numerous countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, religious life has been experiencing resurgence there, particularly in the forms of Neopaganism and Far Eastern religions.

Within the world's four largest religions, Christianity currently has the greatest growth by numbers and Islam has the fastest growth by percentage.^[17] Following is some available data based on the work of World Christian Database and its predecessor, the World Christian Encyclopedia:

While controversial in some respects, 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" according to one study.^[21]

A 2002 Pew Research Center study found that, generally, poorer nations had a larger proportion of citizens who found religion to be very important than richer nations, with the exception of the United States.^[22]

References

See also

• Claims to be the fastest growing religion
• Category:Religion by country
• List of religions
• Religious text

External links

• 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).
• BBC A-Z of Religions and Beliefs

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