Number of adherents of world religions:

According to David Barrett et al, editors of the "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200," there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and many smaller ones. 34,000 separate Christian groups have been identified in the world. "Over half of them are independent churches that are not interested in linking with the big denominations." 13 Most people in the world follow one of the religions listed in the table below. Included is the name of the religion, the approximate date of its origin, its main sacred or ethical texts (if any) and its estimated numerical strength (both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the world's population.)
These data are based on census or public opinion data.1Thus, a person is considered to be of a particular religion if they say that they are of that faith. Thus, about 75% of the adults in both the U.S. and Canada are Christians. Many individuals and religious groups have much more strict definitions for membership. Many conservative Christians believe that one has to be "born again" in order to be counted as a Christian. Using this definition, only about 35% of Americans would be counted as Christians. This difference in definitions between conservative Christians and the rest of the population causes much confusion. Some of the approximately 1,000 Christian faith groups in the U.S. and Canada believe themselves to be the only true Christian denomination. Thus, depending on the definition used, the percentage of Christians in the U.S. are between 0.1 and 75% of the total population.
Pie-chart
Image from the U.S. Center for World Mission
Basic information on various religions:
Religion
Date Founded
Sacred Texts
Membership 5
% of World 6
Christianity
30 CE
The Bible
2,039 million
32% (dropping)
Islam
622 CE
Qur'an & Hadith
1,226 million
19% (growing)
Hinduism
1500 BCE with truly ancient roots
Bhagavad-Gita, Upanishads, & Rig Veda
828 million
13% (stable)
No religion(Note 1)
-
None
775 million
12% (dropping)
Chinese folk rel.
270 BCE
None
390 million
6%
Buddhism
523 BCE
The Tripitaka & Sutras
364 million
6% (stable)
Tribal Religions, Shamanism, Animism
Prehistory
Oral tradition
232 million
4%
Atheists
No date
None
150 million
2%
New religions.
Various
Various
103 million
2%
Sikhism
1500 CE
Guru Granth Sahib
23.8 million
<1%
Judaism
Note 3
Torah, Tanach, & Talmud
14.5 million
<1%
Spiritism


12.6 million
<1%
Baha'i Faith
1863 CE
Alkitab Alaqdas
7.4 million
<1%
Confucianism
520 BCE
Lun Yu
6.3 million
<1%
Jainism
570 BCE
Siddhanta, Pakrit
4.3 million
<1%
Zoroastrianism
600 to 6000 BCE
Avesta
2.7 million
<1%
Shinto
500 CE
Kojiki, Nohon Shoki
2.7 million
<1%
Taoism
550 BCE
Tao-te-Ching
2.7 million
<1%
Other
Various
Various
1.1 million
<1%
Wicca
800 BCE, 1940 CE
None
0.5 million?
<1%
Notes:
Note 1: Persons with no formal, organized religion include agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, secularists, etc.
Note 2: We have included Wicca even though their numbers are small because such a large percentage of our site's visitors are of that faith. There is no reliable measure of their numbers. Some Wiccans believe that their faith can be traced back to the origins of the Celtic people; other suggest it is a recently created religion.
Note 3: There is no consensus on the data of founding of Judaism. Some claim that Adam and Eve were the first Jews, and lived circa 4000 BCE; others suggest that they never existed. Some would place the date at the time of Abraham, circa 1900 BCE; others consider Abraham to be a mythical character. Some date it to the Exodus from Egypt circa 1490 BCE; others say that no Exodus happened, and the ancient Hebrews were originally a group that gradually separated from the main body of Canaanites and developed a different culture.
Names of the places of worship and English titles by which local leaders are called:
Religion
Place of worship
Title of local leader
Christianity
Church, Cathedral, Temple, Mission
Pastor, priest, minister
Islam
Mosque
Imam
No religion *
None
None
Hinduism
Mandir, Mandira, Temple, and other names
Priest
Buddhism
Pagoda, Stupa, Temple
Monk
Atheists
None
None
New Asian religion
Various
Various
Tribal Religions, Animism
In nature
Shaman
Judaism
Synagogue
Rabbi
Sikhism
Gurdwaras
Granthi (professional reader)
Shamanists
In nature
Shaman
Confucianism
Temple, Shrine, Seowon
Unknown
Baha'i Faith
House of worship
Usually a lay leader
Jainism
Temple
Priest, Pandit
Shinto
Temple
Priest
Wicca
Circle, Grove
Priestess, Priest, Wiccan
Zoroastrianism
Atash Behram, Agiyari, Prayer rooms
Mobed, Dastur
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Accuracy of the data:
We receive many Emails from visitors to this web site about the above data; some are quite irate.
Many Emails come from Christians who have the impression that Christianity is rapidly growing around the world and that the number of Christian adherents is steadily growing as a percentage of the world's total population. Christianity certainly is growing. Noted Christian author George Weigel notes that: "There were only 558 million Christians in the world in 1900 and there will be approximately 2 billion Christians by the middle of this year [2002], a huge increase." However, Christianity has been in a very slow decline for years as a percentage of world population. Weigel states: "...Christians were 34.5 percent of world population in 1900, and will be 33.1 percent in 2002." 6
We receive many Emails from Muslims and Hindus who honestly believe that their religion is the largest in the world. The available data seems to indicate that they are wrong. However, at current rates of change, Islam will overtake Christianity as the world's dominant religion later in the 21st century.
Various information sources are in general agreement that the three largest religions in the world are currently, in order, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
Numbers of adherent, in billions, are listed as:
Data Source
Christianity
Islam
Hinduism
Adherents.com 10
2.1
1.3
0.9
British Broadcasting Corp. 9
2.0
1.2
0.75
Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year (1966) 12
1.9
1.1
0.78
Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year (2003) 5
2.0
1.2
0.8
International Bulletin of Missionary Research 11
2.0
1.2
-
Wikipedia Encyclopedia 13
2.1
1.3
0.9
There is reasonable agreement among information sources about the total number of adherents of the world's largest religions. However, the data should not be considered precise.
Rate of change of Christians and Muslims:
Of the two largest religions, the "market share" of Christianity appears to be fairly constant:
U.S. Center for World Mission estimated in 1997 that the percentage of humans who regard themselves as Christians rose from 33.7% in 1970 to 33.9% in 1996. 2 Its total number of adherents is growing at about 2.3% annually. This is approximately equal to the growth rate of the world's population. Islam is growing faster: about 2.9% and is thus increasing its market share.
"World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200," estimates that as of 2000, Christians make up 33% of the world's population, with close to two billion followers.
Author Samuel Huntington disagrees: "The percentage of Christians in the world peaked at about 30 % in the 1980s, leveled off, is now declining, and will probably approximate to about 25% of the world's population by 2025. As a result of their extremely high rates of population growth, the proportion of Muslims in the world will continue to increase dramatically, amounting to 20 percent of the world's population about the turn of the century, surpassing the number of Christians some years later, and probably accounting for about 30 percent of the world's population by 2025." 3
The UK Christian Handbook has lower figures. They estimate that 28.3% of the world's population identified themselves as Christians in 1990. They expect this to drop to 27.7% by the year 2000, and to 27.1 in 2010. 4 They attribute the drop to the lower birth rate among Christians compared to followers of other religions.
Within Christianity, not all denominations have the same growth rate. Some annual growth rates are:
Pentecostals: 8.1%
Evangelicals: 5.4%;
All Protestants: 3.3%
Roman Catholics and Others: 1.3%
Since the growth rate of humanity is above 1.4%, the "market share" of Roman Catholicism and others appears to be slowly dropping.
Missiologist Ralph Winter estimated in early 2001 that there are 680 million "born again" Christians in the world, and that they are growing at about 7% a year. This represents about 11% of the world's population and 33% of the total number of Christians. 6
Reference books on world religion:
The ultimate reference book is the two volume monumental set, World Christian Encyclopedia, released in mid-2001, by Oxford University Press. It contains 1699 pages with information about religion in the 238 countries of the world:
David Barrett et al, "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200," Oxford University Press, (2001). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
Related essay and menu on this web site:
Descriptions of dozens of religions and ethical systems
The religious makeup of each country in the world
References used in the above essay:
J.W. Wright, Editor, "The Universal Almanac, 1996", Andrews & McMeel, Kansas City.
Greg H. Parsons, Executive Director, "U.S. Center for World Mission," Pasadena, CA; quoted in Zondervan News Service, 1997-FEB-21.
Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations and the remaking of world order," Touchstone Books, (1998), Pages 65 to 66. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store. This is a controversial book which argues that world divisions and conflicts in the future will be based on culture, ethnicity and religion.
Quoted in Religion Today's Current News Summary for 1999-OCT-19.
Data from the World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2004, Page 612. Derived from the "Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, 2003.
Based on the UN projected world population of 6.301 billion for mid-2003.
"Jesus Christ known to 11% of world's population," Religion Today, 2001-JAN-25, at: http://news.crosswalk.com/religion/item/
George Weigel, "World religions by the numbers," Catholic Educator's Resource Center, 2002-MAR-08, at: http://www.catholiceducation.org/
"Your guide to the religions of the world," BBC World Service, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
"Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents," Adherents.com, at: http://www.adherents.com/
"Statistical Table on Global Mission," International Bulletin of Missionary Research, discussed at: http://www.the-tidings.com/2002/0308/difference.htm
"Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, 1966," cited in many Internet web sites, including http://religion-cults.com/ and http://tangents.home.att.net/
David B. Barrett, et al., "World Christian Encyclopedia : A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World," Oxford University Press, (2001). Read reviews or order this book