List of religious populations


List of religious populations


The list of religious populations article provides a comprehensive overview of the distribution and size of religious groups around the world. This article aims to present statistical information on the number of adherents to various religions, including major faiths such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others, as well as smaller religious communities. It also includes the percentage of nonreligious and atheistic populations.

The data is primarily sourced from organizations like the Pew Research Center, global surveys, census reports, and research studies, offering insights into the demographic composition of religious affiliations across different regions and countries. The list also explores trends in religious growth, decline, and shifts, reflecting the dynamic nature of religious adherence in the global context.

Current world estimates

Pew Research Center made its "Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050" based on 2010 baseline estimates. Although 2020 is already in the past, new estimates for 2020 are still work in progress. Their methodology is published as an appendix.

Notes

Largest religion by country

By proportion

Christians

Countries and territories with the greatest proportion of Christians from Christianity by country, as of 2010:

  1.  Vatican City 100% (100% Roman Catholic)
  2.  Pitcairn Islands 100% (100% Seventh-day Adventist)
  3.  Samoa ~99% (mostly Protestant)
  4.  East Timor 99.6% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  5.  Armenia 98.5% (96% Oriental Orthodox)
  6.  American Samoa 98.3% (mostly Protestant; ARDA claim)
  7.  Malta 98.1% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  8.  Venezuela 98% (71% Roman Catholic)
  9.  Greece 98% (95% Eastern Orthodox)
  10.  Marshall Islands 97.2% (mostly Protestant)
  11.  Tonga 97.2% (mostly Protestant)
  12.  San Marino 97% (~97% Roman Catholic)
  13.  Paraguay 96.9% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  14.  El Salvador 96.4% (mostly Roman Catholic; ARDA claim)
  15.  Kiribati 96% (mostly Protestant)
  16.  Federated States of Micronesia ~96% (mostly Protestant)
  17.  Barbados 95.1% (mostly Protestant)
  18.  Papua New Guinea 94.8% (mostly Protestant; ARDA claim)
  19.  Mexico 94.6% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  20.  Peru 94.51% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  21.  Romania 93% (mostly Eastern Orthodox)
  22.  Poland 92.9% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  23.  Croatia 91.1% (mostly Roman Catholic)
  24.  Philippines 90% (mostly Roman Catholic)

Muslims

Countries and territories with a considerable proportion of Muslims from Islam by country as of 2010, excluding foreign workers in brackets:

Data is based on the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

  1.  Maldives 100%
  2.  Mauritania 99.9%
  3. Gaza Strip 99.9%
  4.  Morocco 99.9%
  5.  Yemen 99.8% (65% Sunni 33.5% Zaydi 1.5% Ismaili)
  6.  Somalia 99.7%
  7.  Afghanistan 99.7% (90% Sunni 10% Shi'a)
  8.  Iran 99.6% (95% Shi'a, 5% Sunni)
  9.  Tunisia 99.5%
  10.  Azerbaijan 99.2% (Shi'a)
  11.  Iraq 99% (67% Shi'a, 33% Sunni)
  12.  Niger 99% (mostly Sunni)
  13.  Turkey 98.6% (85% Sunni, 15% Shi’a)
  14.  Comoros 98.3%
  15.  Algeria 98%
  16.  Saudi Arabia 97.2% (90% Sunni, 10% Shi'a)
  17.  Sudan 97%
  18.  Djibouti 96.9%
  19.  Libya 96.6%
  20.  Pakistan 96.4% (85% Sunni 12% Shi'a 3% Other)
  21.  Bangladesh 90.4%
  22.  Egypt 89.3%
  23.  Indonesia 86.7%
  24.  Malaysia 61.3%
  25.  Nigeria 53.5%
  26.  Ethiopia 41%

Irreligious and atheists

Countries with the greatest proportion of people without religion, including agnostics and atheists, from Irreligion by country (as of 2020):

  1.  Czech Republic (78.4%)
  2.  North Korea (71.3%)
  3.  Estonia (60.2%)
  4.  Hong Kong (54.7%)
  5.  China (51.8%)
  6.  South Korea (46.6%)
  7.  Latvia (45.3%)
  8.  Netherlands (44.3%)
  9.  Uruguay (41.5%)
  10.  New Zealand (48.2%)
  11.  Mongolia (36.5%)
  12.  Spain (35.5%)
  13.  France (31.9%)
  14.  United Kingdom (31.2%)
  15.  Belgium (31%)
  16.  Vietnam (29.9%)
  17.  Sweden (29%)
  18.  Australia (28.6%)
  19.  Belarus (28.6%)
  20.  United States (28%)
  21.  Luxembourg (26.7%)
  22.  Germany (26.3%)
  23.  Canada (23.9%)
  24.  Cuba (23.2%)
  25.   Switzerland (22.8%)
  26.  Finland (20.8%)
  27.  Hungary (20%)
  28.  Slovenia (18.8%)

Data is ranked by mean estimate in parentheses. Irreligious includes agnostic, atheist, secular people, and those having no formal religious adherence. It does not necessarily mean that those of this group don't belong to any religion. Some religions have harmonized with local cultures and can be seen as a cultural background rather than a formal religion. Additionally, the practice of officially associating a family or household with a religion, while not formally practicing the affiliated religion, is common in many countries. Thus, over half of this group is theistic and/or influenced by religious principles, but nonreligious/non-practicing and not true atheists or agnostics. See Spiritual but not religious.

Hindus

Countries with the greatest proportion of Hindus from Hinduism by country as of 2010:

  1.    Nepal 81.3%
  2.  India 79.8%
  3.  Mauritius 48.54%
  4.  Fiji 27.9%
  5.  Bhutan 25%
  6.  Guyana 24.8%
  7.  Suriname 22.3%
  8.  Trinidad and Tobago 18.2%
  9.  United Arab Emirates 15%
  10.  Sri Lanka 12.6%
  11.  Kuwait 12%
  12.  Bangladesh 9.6%
  13.  Bahrain 8.1%
  14.  Réunion 6.7%
  15.  Malaysia 6.3%
  16.  Singapore 5.1%
  17.  Oman 3%
  18.  Seychelles 2.1%
  19.  New Zealand 2.6%
  20.  Pakistan 2.2%
  21.  Indonesia 1.7%
  22.  United Kingdom 1.7%
  23.  Canada 1.5%
  24.  United States 0.7%

Buddhists

Countries with the greatest proportion of Buddhists from Buddhism by country as of 2010:

  1.  Cambodia 96.9%
  2.  Thailand 93.2%
  3.  Myanmar 80.1%
  4.  Bhutan 74.70%
  5.  Sri Lanka 69.3%
  6.  Laos 66.0%
  7.  Mongolia 55.1%
  8.  Japan 36.2% - 66.7%
  9.  Taiwan 35.1%
  10.  Singapore 33.2%
  11.  South Korea 22.9%
  12.  Malaysia 19.8%
  13.  China 18.2%
  14.  Macau 17.3%
  15.  Vietnam 16.4%
  16.  Hong Kong 13.2%
  17.    Nepal 10.3%

Taoists/Confucians/Chinese traditional religionists

As a spiritual practice, Taoism has made fewer inroads in the West than Buddhism and Hinduism. Despite the popularity of its great classics the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching, the practice of Taoism has not been promulgated in America with much success; these religions are not ubiquitous worldwide in the way that adherents of bigger world religions are, and they remain primarily an ethnic religion. Nonetheless, Taoist ideas and symbols such as taijitu have become popular throughout the world through tai chi, qigong, and various martial arts.

  1.  Taiwan 33–80%
  2.  China 30%
  3.  Hong Kong 28%
  4.  Macau 13.9%
  5.  Singapore 8.5%
  6.  Malaysia 2.6%
  7.  South Korea 0.2–1%
  8.  Vietnam
  9.  Philippines 0.01–0.05%
  10.  Indonesia 0.05%

The Chinese traditional religion has 184,000 believers in Latin America, 250,000 believers in Europe, and 839,000 believers in North America as of 1999.

Ethnic and indigenous religionists

Indigenous statistics come from the U.S. Department of State's International Religious Freedom Act (2009), based on the highest estimate of people identified as indigenous or followers of indigenous religions that have been well-defined. Due to the syncretic nature of these religions, the numbers may not reflect the actual number of practitioners.

  1.  South Sudan 32.9%
  2.  Guinea-Bissau 30.9%
  3.  North Korea 29.5%
  4.  Togo 35.6%
  5.  Côte d'Ivoire 25%
  6.  Sudan 25%
  7.  Benin 17.9%
  8.  Burundi 20%
  9.  Burkina Faso 15%
  10.  South Africa 15%
  11.  Democratic Republic of the Congo 12%
  12.  Central African Republic 10%
  13.  Gabon 10%
  14.  Lesotho 10%
  15.  Nigeria 10%
  16.  Sierra Leone 10%
  17.  Kenya 9%
  18.  Palau 9%
  19.  Ghana 8.5%
  20.  Guinea 5%

Sikhs

Countries with the greatest proportion of Sikhs:

  1.  Canada 2.12%
  2.  India 1.72%
  3.  Cyprus 1.1%
  4.  United Kingdom 0.88%
  5.  New Zealand 0.88%
  6.  Australia 0.83%
  7.  Oman 0.75%
  8.  UAE 0.56%
  9.  Italy 0.37%
  10.  Singapore 0.35%

The Sikh homeland is the Punjab state, in India, where Sikhs make up approximately 58% of the population. This is the only place where Sikhs are in the majority. Sikhs have emigrated to countries all over the world – especially to English-speaking and East Asian nations. In doing so they have retained, to an unusually high degree, their distinctive cultural and religious identity. Sikhs are not ubiquitous worldwide in the way that adherents of larger world religions are, and they remain primarily an ethnic religion. But they can be found in many international cities and have become an especially strong religious presence in the United Kingdom and Canada. Sikhism is also the fastest growing religion in New Zealand and Australia.

Spiritists

  1.  Cuba 10.3%
  2.  Jamaica 10.2%
  3.  Brazil 4.8%
  4.  Suriname 3.6%
  5.  Haiti 2.7%
  6.  Dominican Republic 2.2%
  7.  The Bahamas 1.9%
  8.  Nicaragua 1.5%
  9.  Trinidad and Tobago 1.4%
  10.  Guyana 1.3%
  11.  Venezuela 1.1%
  12.  Colombia 1.0%
  13.  Belize 1.0%
  14.  Honduras 0.9%
  15.  Puerto Rico 0.7%
  16.  Panama 0.5%
  17.  Iceland 0.5%
  18.  Guadeloupe 0.4%
  19.  Argentina 0.2%
  20.  Guatemala 0.2%

(ARDA claim)

Spiritist estimates come from a single source, which gives a relative indication of the size of the Spiritist communities within each country.

Jews

Countries with the greatest proportion of Jews (as of 2017):

  1.  Israel 73.6%
  2.  Gibraltar 2.0%
  3.  United States 1.76%
  4.  Canada 1.07%
  5.  France 0.7%
  6.  Hungary 0.485%
  7.  Uruguay 0.483%
  8.  Australia 0.47%
  9.  United Kingdom 0.44%
  10.  Argentina 0.41%
  11.  U.S. Virgin Islands 0.36%
  12.  Belgium 0.259%
  13.  Panama 0.250%
  14.  Latvia 0.24%
  15.   Switzerland 0.22%
  16.  Netherlands 0.17%
  17.  New Zealand 0.11%
  18.  Estonia 0.154%
  19.  Bermuda 0.154%
  20.  Sweden 0.152%
  21.  Germany 0.14%
  22.  South Africa 0.124%
  23.  Ukraine 0.124%
  24.  Russia 0.122%
  25.  Denmark 0.112%

Jains

  1.  India 0.3%
  2.  Suriname 0.3%
  3.  Fiji 0.2%
  4.  Kenya 0.2%
  5.    Nepal 0.1%

By population

Christians

Largest Christian populations (as of 2011):

  1.  United States 229,157,250 (details)
  2.  Brazil 169,213,130
  3.  Russia 114,198,444
  4.  Mexico 106,204,560
  5.  Nigeria 80,510,000
  6.  Philippines 78,790,000
  7.  China 67,070,000
  8.  Democratic Republic of the Congo 63,150,000
  9.  Italy 55,832,000
  10.  Ethiopia 51,477,950
  11.  Germany 50,752,580
  12.  Colombia 44,502,000
  13.  Ukraine 41,973,000
  14.  South Africa 40,243,000
  15.  France 39,560,000
  16.  Spain 38,568,000
  17.  Poland 36,526,000
  18.  Kenya 33,625,790
  19.  Argentina 33,497,100
  20.  United Kingdom 33,200,417
  21.  Uganda 29,943,000
  22.  Indonesia 28.571.606
  23.  India 28,436,000
  24.  Venezuela 28,340,790
  25.  Peru 27,365,100

Muslims

Largest Muslim populations (as of 2017):

  1.  Indonesia 229,000,000 (details)
  2.  Pakistan 215,000,000
  3.  India 209,000,000
  4.  Bangladesh 153,000,000
  5.  Nigeria 117,000,000
  6.  Egypt 87,500,000
  7.  Iran 82,000,000
  8.  Turkey 79,850,000
  9.  Ethiopia 48,000,000
  10.  Sudan 44,000,000
  11.  Iraq 41,000,000
  12.  Algeria 39,000,000
  13.  Morocco 38,000,000
  14.  Afghanistan 37,000,000
  15.  Saudi Arabia 33,000,000
  16.  Uzbekistan 33,648,090
  17.  Yemen 30,000,000
  18.  China 28,000,000
  19.  Russia 25,000,000
  20.  Tanzania 22,000,000
  21.  Niger 22,000,000

Hindus

Largest Hindu populations (as of 2020):

  1.  India 1,120,000,000
  2.    Nepal 28,600,000
  3.  Bangladesh 14,274,430
  4.  Indonesia 4,640,000
  5.  Pakistan 4,400,000
  6.  Sri Lanka 3,090,000
  7.  United States 2,510,000
  8.  Malaysia 1,940,000
  9.  United Arab Emirates 1,239,610
  10.  United Kingdom 1,030,000
  11.  South Africa 749,870
  12.  Mauritius 665,820
  13.  Myanmar 890,000
  14.  Canada 610,000
  15.  South Africa 540,000
  16.  Saudi Arabia 440,000
  17.  Australia 410,000
  18.  Tanzania 403,570
  19.  Singapore 380,000
  20.  Qatar 360,000
  21.  Kuwait 330,000
  22.  Trinidad and Tobago 310,000
  23.  Fiji 270,000
  24.  Guyana 200,000
  25.  Yemen 200,000
  26.  Bhutan 190,000
  27.  Suriname 120,785
  28.  Germany 120,000

Buddhists

Largest Buddhist populations

  1.  China 244,130,000
  2.  Thailand 64,420,000
  3.  Japan 45,820,000
  4.  Myanmar 38,410,000
  5.  Sri Lanka 14,450,000
  6.  Vietnam 14,380,000
  7.  Cambodia 13,690,000
  8.  South Korea 11,050,000
  9.  India 9,250,000
  10.  Malaysia 5,010,000
  11.  United States 3,800,023
  12.  Indonesia 2,062,000

Sikhs

Largest Sikh population (as of 2023)

  2.  India 23,786,000
  3.  Canada 771,790
  4.  United Kingdom 524,000
  5.  United States ~280,000
  6.  Australia 210,400
  7.  Italy 210,000
  8.  Malaysia 100,000
  9.  Thailand 70,000
  10.  United Arab Emirates 52,000
  11.  Philippines 50,000
  12.  New Zealand 40,908
  13.  Oman 35,540
  14.  Portugal 35,000
  15.  France 30,000
  16.  Spain 26,000
  17.  Germany 25,000
  18.  Greece 20,000
  19.  Kuwait 15,000
  20.  Hong Kong 15,000
  21.  Netherlands 15,000

Jews

Largest Jewish populations (as of 2017):

  1.  Israel 6,451,000
  2.  United States 5,700,000
  3.  France 456,000
  4.  Canada 390,000
  5.  United Kingdom 289,500
  6.  Argentina 180,500
  7.  Russia 176,000
  8.  Germany 116,500
  9.  Australia 113,200
  10.  Brazil 93,800
  11.  South Africa 69,300
  12.  Ukraine 53,000
  13.  Hungary 47,500
  14.  Mexico 40,000
  15.  Netherlands 29,800
  16.  Belgium 29,300
  17.  Italy 27,300
  18.   Switzerland 18,700
  19.  Chile 18,300
  20.  Uruguay 16,900
  21.  Turkey 15,300
  22.  Sweden 15,000
  23.  Spain 11,800
  24.  Belarus 10,000
  25.  Panama 10,000

Baháʼís

Largest Baháʼí populations (as of 2010) in countries with a national population ≥200,000:

  1.  India 1,897,651
  2.  United States 512,864
  3.  Kenya 422,782
  4.  Vietnam 388,802
  5.  Congo, Democratic Republic of the 282,916
  6.  Philippines 275,069
  7.  Iran 251,127
  8.  Zambia 241,112
  9.  South Africa 238,532
  10.  Bolivia 215,359
  11.  Tanzania 190,419
  12.  Venezuela 169,811
  13.  Uganda 95,098
  14.  Chad 94,499
  15.  Pakistan 87,259
  16.  Myanmar 78,915
  17.  Colombia 70,504
  18.  Malaysia 67,549
  19.  Thailand 65,096
  20.  Papua New Guinea 59,898

Jains

As of 2005, per ARDA:

  1.  India 5,146,697
  2.  United States 79,459
  3.  Kenya 68,848
  4.  United Kingdom 35,000
  5.  Canada 12,101
  6.  Tanzania 9,002
  7.    Nepal 6,800
  8.  Uganda 2,663
  9.  Myanmar 2,398
  10.  Malaysia 2,052
  11.  South Africa 1,918
  12.  Fiji 1,573
  13.  Japan 1,535
  14.  Belgium 1,500
  15.  Australia 1,449
  16.  Suriname 1,217
  17.  Ireland 1,000
  18.  Réunion 981
  19.  Hong Kong 500 families
  20.  Yemen 229

See also

  • Major religious groups
  • World religions
  • Importance of religion by country
  • Religious demographics

Religions:

  • Religions by country
  • History of the Baháʼí Faith
  • Buddhism by country
  • Christianity by country
    • Catholic Church by country
    • Protestantism by country
    • Eastern Orthodoxy by country
    • Oriental Orthodoxy by country
  • Hinduism by country
  • Islam by country
    • Ahmadiyya by country
  • Judaism by country
  • Sikhism by country

Notes

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References

External links

  • Asian-Nation: Religious Affiliation among Asian Americans
  • International Religious Freedom Report 2007 of U.S. Department of State
  • Background Notes of U.S. Department of State
  • The World Factbook of CIA
  • Religious Freedom page
  • Religious Intelligence
  • BBC News – Muslims in Europe: Country guide
  • Vipassana Foundation – Buddhists around the world

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: List of religious populations by Wikipedia (Historical)


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