According to Adherents, an independent, non-religiously affiliated organisation that monitors the number and size of the world’s religions, there are some 4,300 religions of the world.
Side-stepping the issue of what constitutes a religion, Adherents divides religions into churches, denominations, congregations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, and movements. All are of varying size and influence.
South & East Asia & the Middle East were the birthplaces to all of the world’s largest religions. Abrahamic religions combine to claim over half of the global populace.
Nearly 75 per cent of the world’s population practices one of the five most influential religions of the world: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.
This is a list of religious populations by number of adherents and countries.
Religion | Adherents | Percentage |
Christianity | 2.4 billion | 33% |
Islam | 1.8 billion | 24.10% |
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist | ≤1.2 billion | 16% |
Hinduism | 1.15 billion | 15% |
Buddhism | 521 million | 7% |
Chinese traditional religion | 394 million | 5.50% |
Ethnic Religions | 300 million | 4.19% |
African traditional religions | 100 million | 1.40% |
Sikhism | 30 million | 0.32% |
Spiritism | 15 million | 0.21% |
Judaism | 14 million | 0.20% |
Bahá’í | 7.0 million | 0.10% |
Jainism | 4.2 million | 0.06% |
Shinto | 4.0 million | 0.06% |
Cao Dai | 4.0 million | 0.06% |
Zoroastrianism | 2.6 million | 0.04% |
Tenrikyo | 2.0 million | 0.02% |
Neo-Paganism | 1.0 million | 0.01% |
Unitarian Universalism | 0.8 million | 0.01% |
Rastafari | 0.6 million | 0.01% |