Society and Culture—Religion

Religious Population of the World, 1998

(in thousands)

Statistics of the world's religions are only very rough approximations. Aside from Christianity, few religions, if any, attempt to keep statistical records; and even Protestants and Catholics employ different methods of counting members.

All persons of whatever age who have received baptism in the Catholic Church are counted as members, while in most Protestant Churches only those who “join” the church are numbered. The compiling of statistics is further complicated by the fact that in China one may be at the same time a Confucian, a Taoist, and a Buddhist. In Japan, one may be both a Buddhist and a Shintoist.

Religion Total Percent
distri-
bution		 Africa Asia Latin
America 		North
America		 Europe1 Oceania
Total population 5,929,839 100.0% 778,484 3,588,877 499,534 304,078 729,406 29,460
Christians 1,943,038 32.8% 356,277 283,734 462,965 256,882 558,729 24,451
 Affiliated Christians 1,835,352 31.0% 323,782 275,836 456,919 222,678 536,092 20,045
  Roman Catholics 1,026,501 17.3% 114,316 106,399 442,808 69,536 286,124 7,318
  Protestants 316,445 5.3% 74,436 43,998 45,295 69,437 76,776 6,503
  Orthodox 213,743 3.6% 33,660 15,232 549 4,852 158,775 675
  Anglicans 63,748 1.1% 27,957 856 853 3,260 25,632 5,190
  Other Christians 373,832 6.3% 74,853 143,080 44,331 83,519 25,551 2,498
 Unaffiliated Christians 107,686 1.8% 32,495 7,898 6,046 34,204 22,637 4,406
Atheists 149,913 2.5% 420 121,451 2,673 1,569 23,444 356
Baha'is 6,764 0.1% 1,695 3,260 825 753 126 105
Buddhists 353,794 6.0% 138 348,806 622 2,445 1,517 266
Chinese folk religionists2 379,162 6.4% 33 377,795 184 839 250 61
Confucians 6,241 0.1% — 6,207 — — 11 23
Ethnic Religionists 248,565 4.2% 97,200 148,189 1,231 424 1,262 259
Hindus 761,689 12.8% 2,411 755,500 785 1,266 1,382 345
Jains 3,922 0.1% 65 3,850 — 7 — —
Jews 14,111 0.2% 230 4,139 1,121 5,996 2,530 95
Mandeans 38 — — 38 — — — —
Muslims 1,164,622 19.6% 315,000 812,000 1,624 4,349 31,401 248
New Religionists3 100,144 1.7% 27 98,548 604 759 155 51
Nonreligious4 759,655 12.8% 4,863 600,822 15,300 27,500 108,000 3,170
Other religionists 1,001 0.0% 68 11 95 585 233 9
Shintoists 2,789 0.0% — 2,727 7 55 — —
Sikhs 22,332 0.4% 53 21,531 — 498 236 14
Spiritists 11,785 0.2% 3 — 11,498 148 129 7
Zoroastrians 274 — 1 269 — 3 1 —
NOTES: — Represents or rounds to zero.
1. Includes Russia.
2. Persons professing no religion, nonbelievers, agnostics, freethinkers, and dereligionized secularists indifferent to all religions.
3. Followers of traditional Chinese religion.
4. Followers of Asiatic 20th-century New Religions, New Religious movements, radical new crisis religions, and non-Christian syncretistic mass religions.
Source: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Chicago, Ill., Britannica Book of the Year. Reprinted with permission from Britannica Book of the Year, 1999 © 1999 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.



Major Religions of the World
Religion
U.S. Religious Bodies with More Than 500,000 Members