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Major religious groups

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"World Religions" redirects here. For the TV show see World Religions (TV series).
Major religious groups as a percentage of the world population in 2005.
Predominant religions of the world, mapped by state
Map showing the prevalence of "Abrahamic" (purple), and "Dharmic" (yellow) religions in each country.
Map showing the relative proportion of Christianity (red) versus Muslims (green) in each country.

Major religions have been distinguished from minor religions using a variety of methods of lumping, though any such division naturally reflects a particular bias, since adherents of many religions are likely to consider their own faith "major". Two methods are mentioned in this article: number of adherents and the definitions used by classical scholars of religions.

Another inherent difficulty in making a list of major religions is the problem of what to consider as a distinct religion versus what to consider as minor variants within the same basic religion. For example, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Restorationism are commonly considered variants of Christianity, although they all have been at odds historically and doctrinally; the same is true between Sunni and Shi'a Islam. The exercise of some degree of judgment is therefore necessary to be able to make any list of major religions. This article relies on a few key references for making such judgments. For a more comprehensive list of religions and an outline of some of their basic relationships, please see the article list of religions.

Defined by population

One way to define a major religion is by the number of current adherents. The population numbers by religion are computed by 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.

Largest religions or belief systems by number of adherents

This listing 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 (Began: ca. 27 AD/CE), with major branches as follows:
  2. Islam: 1.3 billion (Began: ca. 610 AD/CE), with major branches as follows: ***
  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. **
  4. Hinduism: 900 million (Began: approximately 1500 BC/BCE or 15th century BC/BCE however some aspects of it trace its history to 2600 BC/BCE or 26th century BC/BCE), with major branches as follows:
  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").
  6. Buddhism: 376 million (Began: 6th century BC/BCE), with major branches as follows:
  7. Primal indigenous: 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 remaining 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 (vodun) 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 (Began: 1500s AD/CE)
  10. Spiritism: 15 million (Began: mid-19th century AD/CE)
    • Not a single organized religion, includes a variety of beliefs including some forms of Umbanda.
  11. Judaism: 14 million (Began: 13th century BC/BCE), with major branches as follows:
  12. Bahá'í Faith: 7 million (Began: 19th century AD/CE)
  13. Jainism: 4.2 million (Began: 6th century BC/BCE), with major branches as follows:
  14. Shinto: 4 million (Began: 300 BC/BCE)
    • 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).
  15. Cao Dai: 4 million (Began: 1926 AD/CE)
  16. Falun Gong: official post-crackdown figure as stated by Chinese Communist Party: 2.1 million; Chinese government pre-crackdown figure as reported by New York Times: 70-100 million; practitioners and founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, often refer to 100 million* (Founded: 1992 AD/CE)
    • Not necessarily considered a religion by adherents or outside observers. No membership or rosters, thus the actual figure of practitioners is impossible to confirm.
  17. Tenrikyo: 2 million (Began: 1838 AD/CE)
  18. Neopaganism: 1 million (Began: 20th century AD/CE)
  19. Unitarian Universalism: 800,000 (Began: 1961 AD/CE, however, prior to the merger the separate doctrines of Unitarianism and Universalism trace their roots to the 16th and 1st centuries AD/CE respectively)
  20. Rastafari: 600,000 (Began: early 1930s AD/CE)
  21. Scientology: 500,000 (Began: 1952 AD/CE)
  22. Zoroastrianism: "less than 200,000" (Began: Sometime between 16th and 6th century BC/BCE) ****, with major branches as follows:
    • Parsis: 110,000
    • Gabars: 20,000

Source of statistics for all religions but Falun Gong: Adherents.com, updated 2005. These statistics are reportedly based on analysis of a range of sources on religious populations, for more on the methodology, please see Adherents.com's explanation.

* Falun Gong itself reportedly claimed 100 million followers worldwide, including 70 million in China; while the number "over 70 million" was reported by the New York Times (both estimates from 1999).

** Unlike the source site adherents.com, this list classifies Juche under the secular/non-religious category, since it does not fit most definitions of religion and is considered secular by its followers.

***Ahmadiyya consider themselves Muslim, but are not considered Muslim by the mainstream. Adherents.com includes Druze as Muslim, but they are usually considered a distinct religious community based mostly in the Middle East who are an offshoot of Islam.

****The main list in the referenced source site estimates 2.6 million adherents of Zoroastrianism, but its detailed section refers to "less than 200,000", an estimate that agrees with a January 2007 estimate published in the Boston Globe newspaper. Because of this reduced estimated adherent count, this religion has been moved from its original position in the population-ranked listing on adherents.com.

Organized religions by population ranking

The Christian Science Monitor used a separate standard, examining only organized religions. The newspaper listed the following in 1998 as the "Top 10 Organized Religions in the World" based on descending numbers of adherents:

# Religion Number of Adherents (*1) Date of Origin (*2) Remarks (*2, *3)
1 Christianity 1900 million 27 AD/CE Has the most followers and most widespread presence of all well-recognized religions. (*4) Predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa, Oceania, and the Philippines.
2 Islam 1100 million 610 AD/CE A widespread religion with many countries majority Muslim, particularly in the Middle East, South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia, Central Asia, North Africa and West Africa.
3 Hinduism 781 million 1500 BC/BCE some aspects 2600 BC/BCE Oldest of all well-recognized religions, forming the majority in India, Nepal, North Eastern province of Sri Lanka, and the Bali sub-province of Indonesia.
4 Buddhism 324 million 6th century BC/BCE Largely in East Asia and the Mainland Southeast Asia, and small parts of South Asia and Russia; originated in India.
5 Sikhism 19 million 1469-1708 AD/CE Youngest of the top 5. Mostly in Punjab region of parts of India and Pakistan.
6 Judaism 14 million 14-17th century BC/BCE A widespread religion with Israel majority Jewish, but with the USA having the largest Jewish population worldwide.
7 Bahá'í Faith 6.1 million 19th century AD/CE Youngest of the group of 10, second most widely dispersed religion after Christianity; fastest growing (percentage) of top 10. (*4)
8 Confucianism 5.3 million 6th century BC/BCE Mostly in China proper; and in Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam.
9 Jainism 4.9 million 6th century BC/BCE Mostly in India.
10 Shinto 2.8 million 300 BC/BCE Mostly in (and formerly the state religion of) Japan.

*1 Number of Adherents is from The Christian Science Monitor, as secondarily reported by Adherents.com (see site page), updated 1998.

*2 Only three columns of the above table (rank, religion and number of adherents) come from the Christian Science Monitor article. The others have been added as supplemental information for this article.

*3 Geographic information comes from an Encyclopædia Britannica table regarding Worldwide Adherents of All Religions by Six Continental Areas, Mid-2002.

*4 According to Trends in Adherence on the Religion page and World Christian Encyclopedia, David A. Barrett, 2001, p. 4.

Major groups of religions

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The major religions of the world can be considered to fall into logical groupings, as can be found in various articles here and elsewhere.

Abrahamic religions are by far the largest group, and these consist primarily of the Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Bahá'í Faith religions. All the religions in this group are related by their belief in Abraham and their strict belief in a monotheistic divine entity. Today, around 3.4 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions and are spread widely around the world apart from the regions around South-East Asia and China. Zoroastrianism and its derived faiths are closely linked to the Abrahamic religions and are considered by some to be a major influence on Abrahamic thought.

Dharmic religions are a family of religions having a theology and philosophy centered on the concept of Dharma. All Dharmic religions have their roots in India, and they are of the most influence across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, South East Asia, as well as isolated parts of Russia. The main Dharmic religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and there is a close interrelationship among them.

Taoic 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, Shinto, Chondogyo, Caodaism, and Yiguandao.

Table of major groups of religions

Name of Group Name of Religion Number of followers Date of Origin Main regions covered
Abrahamic religions
3.4 billion 		Christianity 2.1 billion 27 AD/CE Worldwide except Northwest Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Central, East, and Southeast Asia and China
Islam 1.3 billion 622 AD/CE Middle East, Northern Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Western Africa, Eastern Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Russia, China, Balkan Peninsula, Malay Archipelago
Judaism 14 million 13th century BC/BCE Israel, USA, Europe
Bahá'í Faith 7 million 19th century AD/CE Dispersed worldwide with no major population centers
Dharmic religions
1.4 billion 		Hinduism 1 billion 1500 BC/BCE
(some aspects 2600 BC/BCE)		 Indian subcontinent, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius and Sri Lanka
Buddhism 376 million 6th century BC/BCE Indian subcontinent, East Asia, Indochina, regions of Russia.
Sikhism 23 million 1469-1708 AD/CE India, Pakistan, Africa
Jainism 4.2 million 6th century BC/BCE India, and East Africa
Taoic religions
population unknown 		Taoism unknown 5th century BC? China and the Chinese diaspora
Confucianism unknown 551-479 BCE China, Korea, Vietnam and the Chinese and Vietnamese diasporas
Shinto 4 million N.A. Japan
Caodaism 1-2 million 1925 AD/CE Vietnam
Chondogyo 1.13 million 1812 AD/CE Korea
Yiguandao 1-2 million c. 1900 AD/CE Taiwan
Other religions
900 million 		Chinese folk religion 394 million 550-479 BC/BCE China
Primal indigenous 300 million from 1 BC/BCE India, Asia
African traditional and diasporic 100 million from 580s BC/BCE Africa, Americas
Zoroastrianism 200,000 16th-6th century BC/BCE Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, India, Kurdistan

Historic "classic" view

Major religions have also been identified based on their perceived importance, whether theological or temporal. This sorting has generally been the preserve of Western, Christian scholars, so lists of classic major religions portray this bias. Early Christian scholars, the earliest known classifiers of major religions, recognized only three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism (which they considered to encompass every other religion). Views evolved during the Enlightenment, however, and, by the nineteenth century, Western scholars considered the five major religions to be Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. As the exposure of Westerners to other religions increased, six other religions were added to the original five: Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Shinto, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. Later, the Bahá'í Faith was added to this list, resulting in twelve classic religions :

Modern Western definitions of major religion come from the classical definition, often expanding on "Christianity," and omitting Jainism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism. An example is this list found in the New York Public Library Student Reference:

Further reading

  • Tomoko Masuzawa, The invention of world religions, or, How European universalism was preserved in the language of pluralism, Chicago University Press 2005

See also

External links

  • Animated history of World Religions - from the "Religion & Ethics" part of the BBC website, interactve animated view of the spread of world religions (requires Flash plug-in).

References

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