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Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents
Christianity: 2.1 billion Islam: 1.3 billion Secular/Nonreligious: 1.1 billion Hinduism: 900 million Chinese Traditional: 394 million Buddhism: 376 million Primal-Indigenous: 300 million African Traditional: 100 million Sikhism: 23 million Juche: 19 million Spiritism: 15 million Baha’i: 7 million Jainism: 4.2 million Shinto: 4 million Cao Dai: 4 million Zoroastriansim: 2.6 million Tenrikyo: 2 million Neo-Paganism: 1 million Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand Rastafarianism: 600 thousand Scientology 500 thousand. * Source: http://www.adherents.com.
Proportion of World Population Adhering to Major Religious Traditions
Year |
1900 |
1970 |
1980 |
1985 |
2000 |
Religion |
|
|
|
|
|
West Christian |
26.9 |
30.6 |
30.0 |
29.7 |
29.9 |
Orthodox Christian |
7.5 |
3.1 |
2.8 |
2.7 |
2.4 |
Muslim |
12.4 |
15.3 |
16.5 |
17.1 |
19.2 |
Nonreligious |
0.2 |
15.0 |
16.4 |
16.9 |
17.1 |
Hindu |
12.5 |
12.8 |
13.3 |
13.5 |
13.7 |
Buddhist |
7.8 |
6.4 |
6.3 |
6.2 |
5.7 |
Chinese Folk |
23.5 |
5.9 |
4.5 |
3.9 |
2.5 |
Tribal |
6.6 |
2.4 |
2.1 |
1.9 |
1.6 |
Atheist |
0.0 |
4.6 |
4.5 |
4.4 |
4.2 |
* Source: David B. Barrett, ed. World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative study of churches and religions in the modern world A.D. 1900-2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1982). The world religions listing is derived from the statistics data in the Adherents database. The list was created in consultation with university professors of comparative religions and scholars from different religions. The Adherents.com collection now has over 43,000 adherent statistic citations for over 4,300 different faith groups, covering all countries of the world. This is not an absolutely exhaustive compilation of all such date, but it is by far the largest compilation available on the Internet. Subgroups within these religions (such as Catholics, Protestants, Wiccans, Shiites, etc.) are available at: http://www.Adherents.com. |
