Most members of the other major religious groups live in countries in which they are in the minority. (The others are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hong Kong, Japan and North Korea.) The religiously unaffiliated make up a majority of the population in six countries, of which China is by far the largest. Muslims are a majority in 49 countries, including 19 of the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Though by smaller margins, most Muslims (73%) and religiously unaffiliated people (71%) also live in countries in which they are the predominant religious group. (To see the religious composition of each country, see Religious Composition by Country table.) Fully 97% of all Hindus live in the world’s three Hindu-majority countries (India, Mauritius and Nepal), and nearly nine-in-ten Christians (87%) are found in the world’s 157 Christian-majority countries. Overwhelmingly, Hindus and Christians tend to live in countries where they are in the majority. (This figure does not include subgroups of the eight major groups in this study, such as Shia Muslims living in Sunni-majority countries or Catholics living in Protestant-majority countries.) Only about a quarter (27%) of all people live as religious minorities. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the world’s people live in countries in which their religious group makes up a majority of the population. Roughly equal numbers of Christians live in Europe (26%), Latin America and the Caribbean (24%) and sub-Saharan Africa (24%).Ī plurality of Jews (44%) live in North America, while about four-in-ten (41%) live in the Middle East and North Africa – almost all of them in Israel. Of the major religious groups covered in this study, Christians are the most evenly dispersed. About 20% of Muslims live in the Middle East and North Africa, and nearly 16% reside in sub-Saharan Africa. The Asia-Pacific region also is home to most of the world’s Muslims (62%). Indeed, the number of religiously unaffiliated people in China alone (about 700 million) is more than twice the total population of the United States. Three-quarters of the religiously unaffiliated (76%) also live in the massive and populous Asia- Pacific region.
Several religious groups are heavily concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, including the vast majority of Hindus (99%), Buddhists (99%), adherents of folk or traditional religions (90%) and members of other world religions (89%). The geographic distribution of religious groups varies considerably.
(See Religiously Unaffiliated.) Geographic Distribution Surveys indicate that many of the unaffiliated 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. This makes the unaffiliated the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world’s Catholic population. 1Īt the same time, the new study by the Pew Forum also finds that roughly one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16%) have no religious affiliation. An estimated 58 million people – slightly less than 1% of the global population – belong to other religions, including the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism, to mention just a few. In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice various folk or traditional religions, including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions. The demographic study – based on analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers – finds 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010. A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion. Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group.
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