The Global Religious Landscape June 2012 | Page 10

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GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE

Executive Summary
orldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group. A comprehensive
demographic study of more than
countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research
Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are . billion religiously
af liated adults and children around the globe, representing
of the
world population
of . billion.
The demographic study – based on analysis
of more than ,
censuses, surveys and
population registers – nds . billion
Christians (
of the world’s population),
. billion Muslims (
), billion indus
(
), nearly
million uddhists ( ) and
million Jews ( . ) around the world as
of
. In addition, more than
million
people ( ) practice various folk or traditional
religions, including African traditional
religions, Chinese folk religions, Native
American religions and Australian aboriginal
religions. An estimated
million people –
slightly less than
of the global population –
belong to other religions, including the aha’i
faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism,
Tenrikyo, icca and oroastrianism, to
mention just a few.

Size of Major Religious Groups, 2010
Percentage of the global population

0.8%
Other Religions**

0.2%

5.9%

Jews

Folk Religionists*

7.1%
Buddhists

31.5%
Christians

15.0%
Hindus

16.3%
Unaffiliated

23.2%
Muslims

*Includes followers of African traditional religions, Chinese
folk religions, Native American religions and Australian
aboriginal religions.

**Includes Bahai’s, Jains, Sikhs, Shintoists, Taoists, followers
At the same time, the new study by the Pew
of Tenrikyo, Wiccans, Zoroastrians and many other faiths.
Forum also nds that roughly one-in-six
Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.
people around the globe ( . billion, or
)
Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life
have no religious af liation. This makes the
unaf liated the third-largest religious group
worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world’s Catholic
population. Surveys indicate that many of the unaf liated hold some religious or spiritual
beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit) even though they do not identify with a
particular faith. (See page .)

1 Although some faiths in the “other religions” category have millions of adherents around the world, censuses and surveys in many countries do not
measure them specifically. Estimates of the global size of these faiths generally come from other sources, such as the religious groups themselves. By far
the largest of these groups are Sikhs, who number about 25 million, according to the World Religion Database. For more information, see Spotlight on Other
Religions on page 40.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY