Adherents.com Estimates
Adherents.com says "Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number."
| Religion | Adherents |
|---|---|
| Christianity | 2.1 billion |
| Islam | 1.5 billion |
| Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist | 1.1 billion |
| Hinduism | 900 million |
| Chinese traditional religion | 394 million |
| Buddhism | 376 million |
| Primal-Indigenous religions | 300 million |
| African Traditional & Diasporic religions | 100 million |
| Sikhism | 23 million |
| Juche* | 19 million |
| Spiritism | 15 million |
| Judaism | 14 million |
| Baha'i | 7 million |
| Jainism | 4.2 million |
| Shinto | 4 million |
| Cao Dai | 4 million |
| Zoroastrianism | 2.6 million |
| Tenrikyo | 2 million |
| Neo-Paganism | 1 million |
| Unitarian Universalism | 800 thousand |
| Rastafarianism | 600 thousand |
| Scientology | 500 thousand |
- Notes
- These figures may incorporate populations of secular/nominal adherents as well as syncretist worshipers, although the concept of syncretism is disputed by some.
- Nonreligious includes agnostic, atheist, secular humanist, and people answering 'none' or no religious preference. Half of this group is theistic but nonreligious.
- For Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto or animism etc., people often have religions which are a mix of belief systems. This leads to the unusually large uncertainty in the calculations for Buddhism. The lower number of approximately 400 million represents traditional Buddhists (have taken refuge in the Three Jewels, those following all of the precepts of Buddhisim laid down by the Buddha,) whereas the larger number of 1.5 billion includes "natural Buddhists" (as well as secular/nominal Buddhists), lacking specific ceremony, as long as they do not profess belief in another religion. Main article: Buddhism by country.
- It is hard to accurately report the actual number of adherents of Judaism as there are Jews that do not practice the religion that may be under the secular/irreligious category even though they are fully Jewish.
- Chinese traditional religion is described as "the common religion of the majority Chinese culture: a combination of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, as well as the traditional non-scriptural/local practices and beliefs."
- Juche is not generally considered a religion, as it is a political belief system; some sources call it a 'political religion'.
Read more about this topic: List Of Religious Populations
Famous quotes containing the word estimates:
“A State, in idea, is the opposite of a Church. A State regards classes, and not individuals; and it estimates classes, not by internal merit, but external accidents, as property, birth, etc. But a church does the reverse of this, and disregards all external accidents, and looks at men as individual persons, allowing no gradations of ranks, but such as greater or less wisdom, learning, and holiness ought to confer. A Church is, therefore, in idea, the only pure democracy.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)